Cross-Processing Dubai

Two Camels - cross-processed in the GIMP

Of late I’ve been trying to take more photos of the country I live in. After 12 years of living here, and coming from a place like India that is infinitely more visually chaotic, it becomes a bit of an effort to keep boredom from setting in. I can’t say I’m taking better photos here now than perhaps I ever did, and I still yearn for a place that isn’t just desert and buildings and malls, but I’m trying.

Recently I finally looked into this whole cross-processing look I’ve always liked, and how to introduce them into my own photos. After appying the knowledge of a few tutorials and a couple of GIMP plugins and scripts (including my favourite GEGL C2G method) I’ve come up with these.

They’re all a bit over the top — nobody said Indians were subtle and I am, in that regard at least, 100% desi — but I do like the strangeness the techniques bring to otherwise bland, brown and grey photos of the UAE. Here’s six more examples.

Old Town in Downtown Dubai - cross-processed
Dubai Desert - cross-processed
Old Town Building textures - cross-processed
Dubai Outer Bypass Road - cross-processed
Sharjah Market Dome - cross-processed(Okay, I lied in the title — this one above is actually in Sharjah)
Burj Khalifa - cross-processed

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