Processing Slide Film
13 October 2008, evening time
Normally I cross-process the slide film I buy. Processing slide film (E6) is a pain in the ass because it costs more and can’t be done by most places. Getting it cross-processed — developed as if it was regular colour negative film (C41) — is easier. You end up with crazy looking pictures, but sometimes the effect works really well.
I shot a roll of expired Velvia 50 at my wedding. I was going to cross-process it, like I do all my film, but thought I’d switch it up and get it developed properly. The guy at shoppers wasn’t exactly sure how much it would be, but I figured it couldn’t be more than 2 or 3 times as much as developing colour film. This was a mistake on my part.
It took Shoppers a month or so to get my pictures back to me. Mezan grabbed them while I was in Australia. They turned out OK, though they are far from exceptional. The whole endeavor cost me $60. That’s basically 10 times as much as getting colour film developed and printed at Shoppers. I want to blame this on the Shoppers photolab, but it seems to be my own damn fault.
At least I have a whole bunch of slides now.
