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Cross processing and Mars Bars
By nealejames | June 2, 2007
Okay, imagine this. You take one perfectly good Mars Bar available at all good confectionary outlets and pop it in your fridge. Chill it, don’t freeze it. Mix some flour and baking soda, add a little beer, then mix until you get a batter like consistency. Heat some oil. Liberate your Mars from the fridge and coat in batter. Now carefully lower this confused culinary delight into the oil and fry until golden brown. Voila; the famous Mars Bar in batter. Really, only fish should be caked in batter and plunged into boiling vats of oil, surely?! You’re doing things the wrong way round when you cross the savoury frying rule yes? Well, no actually. Some things in life just don’t look like they should mix, but boy do they work! Funnily enough in photographic land, cross processing works in a similar fashion. Take a colour print film and instead of processing it in a mixture of chemicals tried and tested for the purpose, dip it into chemicals designed to process an entirely different flavour of film, namely colour reversal (or slide film). You get superb hues, plus unnatural colours and the contrast zips up in to produce incredibly mysterious results. In 2007 of course with digital workflow, computer programs can yield similar results - and the image here shows one of my favourite photographs from a wedding shot at Highclere Castle in Berkshire. Look how her blue eyes dance into the picture and how the roses are deep and luxurious in both texture and colour. We’ve been working hard on this album which pulls similar effects into the mix. It’s almost ready for collection and I can’t wait to show the bride and groom. Oh, by the way, it’s worth pointing out that a fried Mars Bar is 1,000 calories plus. Just thought I’d mention that for those on the Weightwatchers points plan.
Topics: Blog journal, Photography tips and techniques, Wedding general |