Altered Reality (film/tech)

[bholmes@frii.com (Ben Holmes)]

Note that I have included in the subject an abbreviated LUG "rating"
designation. This will allow those interested in reading a technical post to
identify it as such. Were my post of a philisophical nature I would have
labeled it as (phil/cerebral). That being said, with my tongue planted
firmly in my cheek, I will continue.

I've been playing with cross-processing of materials, and have a
film/exposure combo that is producing some really interesting results. For
those of you who don't know what he hell I'm talking about,
cross-processing, or "cross-pross", is the developing of a film type (color
trans or color neg) in a chemistry not designed for that film type. An
example would be running Ektachrome in C-41 chemistry. The resulting images
are very different from what you see through the VF, and are very hot
amongst graphic designers. Basically, when you run neg films in positive
chemistry you get a positive image. When positive films are run in negative
chemistry you get a negative image. You want to overexpose negative films to
build sufficient density in the resulting slides, and underexpose chromes to
prevent a really dense negative. 

I've been shooting VPS, overexposed 1 1/2 stops, and run in E6 chemistry.
The images show a very blue cast with some strange color shifts in flesh
tones. Some of the hues that result defy description. It's certainly not for
everyone, but has a beautiful look to it. I am seeing it more and more in
high-end print ads for products such as Nike and Mercedes Benz. It is also
common in fashion type ads.

This is nothing new, however, little info exists as to the exposure of
specific materials. If you've played with this, and have had some good
results that you would share, I would be interested to hear from you.

Oh, and I use a Leica.

,/8^|