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Saturday 14 May 2011

37: ...Guide to Cross Processing Slide in C-41

And now just a lesson on developing your film the wrong way. There are basically two main processes in colour photography. Negative and slide (positive) films are meant to be processed in C-41 and E-6 processes, but when you process your slides in C-41 you will get a negative and when you process your negatives in E-6 slide image will come out. In this entry I would like to show you images taken on Ektachrome E100G film (rated at ISO 50 and not native 100 for more contrast, but when you cross process slide>negative no exposure compensation is needed in general). Some labs will cross process treating it just as a regular technique, while some others may refuse to do so as apparently this spoils the chemicals. Whether it is true or not I don't know, but what I know is that you can always scrape off the data from your 35mm film casettes and lie to achieve your goal if necessary!

Here are just a few examples of the Ektachrome E100G film developed in C-41:





As you see the 'results may vary' but in fact the differences in colour are just a matter of scanning the negative with different settings. You may want to scan the film and set the desired colour yourself. One thing is for sure: When you develop your slide in C-41 very contrastive and colourful images will come out, the photos will be dominated by one colour (depending on the film), but it is easy to alter that during the scan or post processing. This film was naturally green-yellowish, but I managed to squeeze out nice blues and oranges from it quite easily.

Good luck fooling your lab guys!

Camera used: Pentax 67 + Takumar 105mm/2.4