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.

Lomography Trend / Digital Lomography

A bright red sign posted in the window of a local Indie music store advertises a dead photography trend - or at least it was dead.

Lomography, a type of cheap photography that developed in the 1960's is becoming more and more popular among young artists. What makes lomography fun is that the colors are often wildly saturated and unexpected in hue. The photos are also extremely sharp, often grainy, and usually have a strong vignette around the edges.

Lomo cameras are light, made of plastic, and feel like toys. When they were first created, they were sold for mere pennies, but they caught on because of the interesting colors they produced. Then, as instant and disposable photography got better, the lomography cameras gradually got phased out. But apparently they were not entirely forgotten, because now the Lomo is back. Although now, the camera isn't sold so cheaply. On average, one costs between $60 and $200 depending on the brand, the make, and the product quality. And the film costs about $5 a roll, plus $10 for developing. It's a pretty expensive "cheap" photography.

Fortunately, there's an alternative: digital lomography.
This online tutorial is great and easy to follow, and the images it produces really look like they were taken by a film Lomo.


I suspect that as the old photo / lomography trend will only grow in popularity, but that as the economy dwindles, more and more people will start switching to digital lomography. Not everyone is going to be able to afford to buy Lomo film (120mm instead of the normal 35mm), so they will switch to the free kind.