Digital Cross-Processing

Often, I'm sad about having dull digital photos, but for various reasons, I don't have the time to go through and make a thoughtful edit.
I've found an Action for Photoshop that makes colorful photo edits in just seconds, by one click.

It's digital cross-processing.

Cross-processing is a technique that originated with film photography: during developing, the wrong chemicals were used, which causes colors to be switched, changed, or amplified. What's great about this Action is that it has many options. Within the one download are many ways to create cross-processed photos.

The four lower photos have been digitally cross-processed.
The top photo is the original.

Cross-processing is a popular technique among artistic film photographers, particularly lomographers. Cross-processed Lomo film yields ridiculous colors.

Photo by Teppo.

This Photoshop Action is very useful for making nice-looking photos very quickly, but it's even better when used as a tool for making a thoughtful edit. When the action is used on a duplicated layer, the layer can be played around with. Different blending modes and transparencies produce different effects, and typical photo-editing tricks can also be applied.

On Projects

Teppo Moisio of Helsinki Finland
is quite an influential photographer.

Not only did he start the 365 project, which led to the creation of Dailybooth, which was mentioned in an earlier entry; but he also started the 100 Strangers Project, which has grown into a rather popular trend among aspiring photographers and photojournalists.

The 100 Strangers Project has its own website, where people can post their photos and progress in their own attempts at the 100 Strangers Project.

I keep seeing projects like this popping up, which leads me to believe this is a new trend. And I think it's one that will stick. Projects are a great way to keep yourself focused on something you are really interested in, and they are a great way to stay dedicated to something. I believe projects will stick because of the growing digital industry (New Media and such). It needs people who are dedicated and passionate about what they're doing, and a great way for a person to show their dedication and passion is to do a project about it. Also, projects are a great way to learn and exercise curiosity in an area. This is also vital to the future of the digital industry.

Poladroid

I found a really great application, which works for both Mac and PC. It's called Poladroid. It easily turns your JPEG images into digital polaroids. But it's quirky. Like an actual polaroid, these polaroids take time to develop, and if you shake it, it develops faster. But the wait is worth it, because the images it produces are great.

It's still in beta testing, though, so it has a few problems. The application doesn't automatically come to the front when switching to it from another application. But other than that, this is a brilliant application.

This app is designed for people who have an interest in old, lo-fi photography, for people who are nostalgic about a dying medium, or for people who just like interesting looking photos. This is a seriously fun app for anyone who likes to play with images.

Poladroid is already making its way around social-networking sites like Facebook and Myspace, but it's still in its Early Adapter stage. It's starting to tip. It's not super popular just yet, but I imagine it soon will be, considering the growing photo-editing trend (Picassa, Picnik, etc.). I anticipate that in a few years, there will be editors like this for tons of other types of old photos. Already there is one to make photos look like they were from the 1800's.