CROSS PROCESS IN PHOTOSHOP.

Well girls/guys, this time we are going to review one of my fascinations in photography which is cross-process, I just love it, it has such a different feeling and the fact that sometimes you get random result makes it a lot of fun.

Sadly we can't imitate the whole process with digital media, we lose lots of variants such as grain and other weird things about it but we will try to be stick to the process as much as we can, so, have patience.

Oh 3 things, First: this process has LOTS of variants (I've made 45 variants of it) so don't be surprised if you can't use the same process with other of your images, I highly recommend you to experiment with the variants we are going to discuss here.

Second: learn how to make photoshop actions!! they will make the process easier! sometimes the process is really long, so, if you don't know how to make photoshop actions write down the variants or search in GOOGLE a tutorial about how to make actions.

Third: this tutorial works in Photoshop 6, CS, CS2; It might work in Paint Shop Pro, I haven't tried it yet.

Lets start, we are going to cover 2 of the main variants I use, btw, your document needs to be in RGB color for this example.

First variant: Cross-process using curves.
First of all use one of your pictures, try to find one with lots of color variations and a nice balance.

Why did I say that? its because cross-process need this type of images to work properly, if you use a underexposed or overexposed image it is going to end up really dark or more overexposed than necessary and probably will lead to a very unpleaseant result.

Well, later you can apply this technique to other type of images without caring about capturing lots of color on it for now we are interested in seeing how this thing works.
So, as the title says we are going to use curves here, lots of curves!

Open curves: Image/adjust/curves (shortcut: ctrl+m) you are going to see this dialog box:



Well, you can see here the 2 main points one is located at 0,0 and the other one is located at 255,255 those are the base points, so, basically we need to add more points to that line in order to move them and create a soft curve, to add a point just click on the line and the point will be added allowing you to write the input and output values, if you want to move a point click on it and drag it to the position you desire, we will start in the blue channel, add a point to it, we will have 3 points then, make sure you have this values: 0,0/96,112/255,226.



No kiddies, don't click on OK yet, I just wanted to show you the aspect of the curve also you should be seeing a slight difference in your picture by now, lets move to the green channel curve, but now you will have to add 2 points to the line (4 points in total) be sure to follow this values: 0,0/100,117/153,180/255,249, then change to the red channel and place again 2 more points, their values: 0,0/70,43/180,185/255,241 finally change to the RGB channel, place again 2 points and write this values: 0,0/72,48/183,208/255,255 now yes, you can click OK, after that my image looks like this:
Well the result is not bad, seems decent but its not what we are looking for, so, now go to image/adjust/hue-saturation... (shortcut: ctrl+u)and there make sure that the colorize option is off, leave hue and lightness in 0, add +20 to saturation and click ok, only a step more and we'll be finished.
So for the final touch open again the curves dialog box, do exactly as we did the last time but now use this values:

Blue channel (4 points): 0,0/123,94/179,173/255,219 Green channel (4 points): 0,0/103,125/146,170/255,255 Red channel (4 points): 0,0/123,155/172,211/255,255 RGB channel: no changes.

And the image should look like this ---------->

Well what do you think? have you seen those reds, blues and greens? they look really nice so far this is the technique, not a biggie but as you see its a long technique, that's why you need to learn actions.

Lets see the other variant I use.

Second variant: Cross-process using channel mixer and curves.
The next technique its a small variation of the other one, it helps us to emphasize different colors and leads us to a very different result, or this example I will use the next picture, because I like her jeans and her shirt colors, now open the channel mixer Image/adjust/channel mixer...

So, in the output channels write this values

Red output channel: red +156, green +42, blue -54.
Green output channel: red -4, green +112, blue +5.
Blue output channel: red +26, green -64, blue +116.

You should see a significant difference between the original and this one.

Go to image/adjust/hue-saturation... (shortcut: ctrl+u), make sure that the colorize option is off, leave hue and lightness in 0, add +20 to saturation and click ok, open curves again and do exactly at the last time but write this values:

Blue channel (3 points): 0,0/126,123/255,191.
Green channel (4 points): 0,0/69,62/172,179/255,217.
Red channel (4 points): 0,0/76,48/172,184/255,232.
RGB channel (4 points): 0,0/106,103/172,176/255,255

You are going to get something like this:
Intense uh? you can see the escence of the cross-process here, strong colors, high contrast and those skin tones!

But what happens if we switch techniques and images? lets see...
Using the channel mixer and curves technique.
Using the curves technique.
Boys, girls, the possibilities are endless!! Keep on experimenting change the values, learn how the channel mixer and how the curves work, you don't need to use those 4 points all the time, experiment with 3 with 5 points, try layer blending modes, is up to you!

I really hope this tutorial helped you.

If you have comments/questions about this tutorial send them to me at temoce@gmail.com
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