I’m an Xpro Junkie!

If you go to my website Chelness.com, you’ll notice that most of my photos have a certain look and feel on them. That effect is called “cross processed”. I believe having this certain look gives character to the photos, and adds a dramatic effect.

Cross processing, sometimes called Xpro, is one of the most popular photographic techniques around. It is the procedure of processing photographic film in a chemical solution intended for a different type of film. The effect was discovered independently by many different photographers often by mistake in the days of C-22 and E-4. The process is seen most often in fashion advertising and band photography, and in more recent years has become more synonymous with the Lo-Fi photography movement.

Traditionally, cross processing can be achieved either by processing positive color reversal film in C-41 chemicals, resulting in a negative image on a colorless base, or processing negative color print film in E-6 chemicals, resulting in a positive image but with the orange base of a normally processed color negative.

Now not many people use film cameras anymore, and not everyone wants to go through the trouble of processing film cameras, especially at this day and age of DSLRs. If you don’t want to go through the whole nine yards to achieve this look, you can also recreate the same “effect” by using cross processing techniques in photo editing tools such as Photoshop, to as easy as downloading an app.

Here are 2 apps that lets you edit your photos to achieve the cross-processed effect:

1. http://instagr.am/ – Snap a photo with your iPhone, choose a filter to transform the look and feel, send to Facebook, Twitter or Flickr – it’s all as easy as 1,2,3. It’s photo sharing, with a dash of creativity. Oh yeah, did I mention it’s free?
2. http://hipstamaticapp.com/ – With a swipe of the finger, change your lens, flash, or film. Each adds a unique touch to your HipstaPrint, so you can mix and match to find your favorite combination.

Here are examples different styles of Cross-processing photos:

CLASSIC

DEEP AND DARK

BRIGHT AND COLORFUL

BLUE

RED

FISHEYE

LOMOGRAPHY

Cross processing explained in one sentence is simply taking your exposed film and having it developed in the opposite processing chemistry. By doing so, you can achieve a very interesting “artsy look” for your images. However getting just the right look can take much time and effort as much testing of films and processes is required, but you can do it the 2011 way like me — resort to using Photoshop or cool iPhone apps! With very little effort, you can now enhance your normal insignificant-looking photos for results that will put even Rolling Stone magazine photos to shame!

Michelle Gonzales is a passionate, creative, versatile, and accomplished marketing professional who thoroughly enjoys speaking about herself in the third person. She specializes in search engine optimization (SEO), marketing communication, blogging, copywriting, conceptualizing ideas, and social media. She is also the owner and founder of Chelness.com, a FOOD, TRAVEL and LIFE blog! Find out more information about Michelle on her website, MichelleGonzales.com, or follow her on Twitter @chelness, and “like” her Chelness.com Facebook page to get her latest updates!