Darkroom and Process Looks, With Prompts

Spotlight search

Find any model, tool or page and jump to it.

Darkroom and process

The changes made to the film itself, and the wording for each one.

A stock decides what the film can record. The process decides what survives. Everything on this page is a change made to the film itself, in the tank or before it ever went into the camera, and each one leaves a mark that no filter reproduces: grain that clumps, contrast that steepens, colour that walks off in one direction and stays there. Two more processes belong on this shelf and live elsewhere. Bleach bypass is published at /techniques/cinema/colour-grading/bleach-bypass/ and cross processing at /techniques/cinema/colour-grading/cross-process/, because both reached the cinema catalogue first, as grades.

In the tank

3

Three changes made while the film or the print sits in the developer. The picture is already recorded, and the process decides how much of it survives.

Push processing: Rated above box speed and developed longer: hard contrast, coarse grain, shadows that stay shut.
Push processing
Rated above box speed and developed longer: hard contrast, coarse grain, shadows that stay shut.
Pull processing: Rated below box speed and developed less: low contrast, fine grain, highlights that hold and shadows that open.
Pull processing
Rated below box speed and developed less: low contrast, fine grain, highlights that hold and shadows that open.
Solarisation: A partial reversal: part of the tone range flips, and a thin light line traces every edge.
Solarisation
A partial reversal: part of the tone range flips, and a thin light line traces every edge.

Before the tank

3

Three changes made to the film before it is developed, and in two cases before it is even shot. A roll loaded the wrong way round, decay, and damage done on purpose.

Redscale: Colour negative loaded backwards, so the light passes through the orange base and everything returns red.
Redscale
Colour negative loaded backwards, so the light passes through the orange base and everything returns red.
Expired film: Film past its date: slower, foggier, colour shifted, with blotches and streaks the stock never had when new.
Expired film
Film past its date: slower, foggier, colour shifted, with blotches and streaks the stock never had when new.
Film soup: Film soaked in liquid before or after shooting: streaks, bubbles, melted colour and edges that crystallise.
Film soup
Film soaked in liquid before or after shooting: streaks, bubbles, melted colour and edges that crystallise.

Shoot one of them

Copy a prompt into an image model and pay for that one run. No subscription.

Open an image model

Other look groups

Colour film stocksThe colour stocks, and what each does to skin, to sky and to green.12 colour stocksBlack and white film stocksThe stocks, and what each one does to grain, to skin and to the sky.8 black and white stocksSlide and instant filmThe positive stocks, their narrow latitude, and the wording for each.8 slide and instant stocksCamera and formatThe ways to size a frame, and the wording that gets each one.8 cameras and formatsHistorical processesThe processes from before the film roll, and the wording for each.10 historical processesPhotographic genresEach genre written as the lens, the light and the distance that make it.16 photographic genresProduct and commercialThe shots a product needs, and the light, shadow and edge each takes.10 product shots
Cinematic techniquesShooting a video rather than a still? The same reference, for the camera in motion.

Both are in the cinema catalogue, under colour grading: bleach bypass at /techniques/cinema/colour-grading/bleach-bypass/ and cross processing at /techniques/cinema/colour-grading/cross-process/. Each one is a darkroom process as well as a grade, but both reached the cinema catalogue first, as grades, so that is where they stay.