Once I found a good lab that was willing to run X-pro, I had a chance to speak to their manager, Dave Handler. He was nice enough to take some time out of his day to answer a few questions. (Thanks to my Twitter buddies for sending some in…) 

When did you first start cross processing, and were there initial issues with the contamination of the chemicals?  I’ve been cross processing since the late 80’s.  There is no issue in a high volume machine as long as you change machines chemical filters regularly.

Is there a particular film or iso that lends itself better to x-pro?  No, but I like to overdevelop by one or sometimes 2 stops to increase the effect.

You lab specializes in x-pro, what made you decide to concentrate on x-pro?  Just trying to cater to the art crowd of the bay area.

I have noticed differences in printing x-pro film (like a c-print) and scanning, where the printing is more representative of the colors, and in scanning the scanner tries to ‘fix’ the image..  What is the best way to get the film into digital format?  Scanning is fine, the deal is that certain scanners read certain films differently.  We use a Noritsu film scanner which always turns the Fuji film green, whereas Kodak Elitechrome will be more neutral, I much prefer the Kodak.  The same goes for prints because the prints are made from the same scanners.

With the resurgence of film photography, and the lomography movement in particular,  how has your business grown in the last few years?  Well we’ve stopped the bleeding caused by digital, I’m trying to grow the film developing via mail order. We are dedicated to preserving this artform forever.

What tips for exposure would you give somebody new to x-pro?  Again, I think Kodak is better film, but that’s personal.  I’d experiment with different films and film speeds, it’s so subjective and hard to blow it.  The same rules apply to regular photography, just expose your film properly, never underexpose, shoot in bright light. If you need to use a flash that’s fine, but I’m not a fan. Shoot colorful objects, avoid shadows, have the lab overdevelop the film if you want to push the envelope a bit.  My thing I like to do is shoot a lot of negative space, especially blue sky. Or here’s one with a Holga on bulb setting and 2 stops overdeveloped.

 

So with that in mind, have a look at some of the shots using the Kodak film. I was very pleased with the results. What really surprised me was the difference between Konica chrome vs. Kodak, and we’ll get into film choices and how they effect the cross processing in part three.  We’ll see side by side the differences in film stock on the same subject, and also take a look at a few other processes, like Bleach bypass. Stay tuned as well for the biggest x-pro blogroll ever.

[All above images Kodak Elite Chrome with LCA+ RL]