Let's Cross It: Part 1

Fun With Film: Part 1

Let’s Cross It Off the List

What happens when we get curious?

At PrintPoint it’s not all work, just 99% work. So sometimes we start wondering about this and that. And as you may have guessed we do love film here. The great thing about film photography is, firstly, there’s so many ways to experiment with it that there’s practically endless combinations and results you can get. Secondly, there’s a lot of unknowns when you start experimenting with film which can be quite exciting.

So recently we’ve been thinking about cross processing film. It’s probably one of the more straight forward ways you can start experimenting but still the results can be wildly different and it’s always exciting seeing the end result. One of the best parts of experimenting with film processing is when you open the developing tank and see what you got from all your crazy chemistry combinations. In our case we use AgfaDlab1 to develop all our films. So we decided we’d see what happens when we cross process 2 rolls of film shot side by side(ish).

The Techy Bit

In a nut shell cross processing is where you take one type of film (colour negative, colour transparency or black and white negative) and process it in another film types chemistry. For out little experiment we’ve chosen to shoot a roll of FujiFilm FujiColour 200 colour negative film and a roll of Rolley Chrome CR200 colour transparency film (or slide film if you prefer) side by side and process them through the standard C-41 processing chemicals used for colour negatives film.

We’re dusting off our trusty Canon EOS 5 and Zenit ET for this experiment. We’ll be loading the Canon with FujiFilm FujiColour and the Zenit with Rolley Chrome CR200. We’ll be using them to shoot a fairly wide range of subjects to produce a nice overall view of the results that can be achieved from both standard and cross processing film.

Watch This Space

We really can’t wait to shoot these films and process them. Most of all we can’t wait to share the final results and our thoughts on it with you. We’re already excited about it because, let’s be honest, who doesn’t love a little mystery and doing something “wrong” on purpose. So stay tuned for updates on our little experiment, the results promise to be . . . interesting? Yeah, let’s go with interesting.