song: now & then by Sjowgren
I knew then what I know now
I may lose it for a second now and then
151/365 // I knew then what I know now
I rarely like a cross process image anymore. I overdid it when I was first starting out. It got a bit out of hand. I got burnt out but tonight the way the light hit the side of the white house. The clouds on the other side of the world were doing a thing. It felt like a cross process kind of light.
When I first learned how to edit photos, it was all self taught on an old site called pic monkey? picnic monkey? something really ridiculous and they had all these interesting presets. I would memorize how they changed my photographs. I got really good at analyzing color and light that way, so not time wasted but I would start to search for that “light”. Out in the world and how it would appear. I’d tell my friends, “Oh yeah, it’s totally cross process light right now.” I thought I was so cool, you know what, no I was cool, dammit.
Anyway cross process comes from film photography. It’s a technique that requires you to intentionally mess with the chemicals, like using the “wrong” or a different recipe for the type of film you’re developing. I only used one color film in college and I followed the recipe because, hello — rule follower. I regret not messing with color film more. Anyway using a different or wrong recipe made the film come out with random and unpredictable color changes.
When digital took over, people started manipulating photographs to “look” like film in photo editing software. I’m sure there’s a great video out there to tell you just how to do it wherever you edit but the best way to get good at editing is to just do it often and keep trying things. All I do for fake cross process look is shift the curves channels, mostly green and blue. In this double exposure image, I went a little past cross process but it still reminded me of back then.
So Sjowgren has the perfect song for that. It’s also a song that has just a strong feel to it and it felt like outside tonight. It is the end of something but it’s not over. The last day, but really just the start. Endings, beginnings, doors, windows. All the cliche sayings. I’m not sure what to think. My thoughts are still spinning, sitting, stalling, settling. I’ll have to get back to you.
But here’s what I learned tonight editing, I adore placing cloud overlays in prairie grass and blending with a soft light or hard light. Double exposures forever.