Cross Process

Cross Process does not ease you in. Cyan pulls the shadows in one direction, yellow presses into the highlights, and the contrast climbs until the image feels like something is at stake. This is the look of the 90s, when fashion editorials and magazine shoots seemed to come from somewhere slightly off from reality. Not by accident, but because photographers deliberately pushed their materials beyond what they were meant to do.

The preset is modelled on an actual chemical process: slide film developed in chemicals designed for negative film, or the other way around. The colours react incorrectly, in the most interesting way possible. Shadows shift toward cyan, sometimes sharply. Highlights move into yellow or warm gold. The contrast between them compresses the midtones, pushing the image toward something harder and stranger than the original light suggested. Skin tones behave unexpectedly. Skies become something they never were. Every photo responds differently, depending on how light and shadow were distributed in the original frame.

The preset works best when there is a clear separation between light and dark. Street photography under hard sunlight, with sharp shadows and blown reflections. Portraits where you are not trying to keep skin looking natural. Fashion, performance, music, subculture. Images where what matters is not whether it looks correct, but whether it feels right. Flat, grey, low-contrast scenes give the preset little to work with, and the result will likely feel muddy rather than striking.

You reach for Cross Process when you want a photo that holds attention without looking filtered. When you want something that reads like an archive image but was shot this week. Or when you are simply curious what happens if you let the colours do something unexpected and see what survives. The preset is an invitation to control a little less.

One practical note: pull your exposure down slightly before applying, somewhere between half a stop and a full stop. Cross Process amplifies what is already there, and overexposed images lose highlight detail quickly once the preset takes hold. If you are working with a portrait, check the shadow areas on the face. The cyan can look strong and right, but it can also become too much. A small adjustment to the shadow hue in Lightroom gives you room to dial it back without losing what makes the preset worth using in the first place.