The
following tip on getting digital images to look like Lomo Images was
submitted by DPS reader – Frank Lazaro. You can see his photography at his Flickr page and see some of his
Lomo shots here NB: most of the shots in this post can be
enlarged by clicking them. update: once you’ve read this tutorial and
had an experiment with the technique head to our Forum to share some of your results.
From the first time I
saw a photo that looked like this, I wanted to shoot one of my own. But, for
the longest time I couldn’t figure it out how people took photos look like
this. Then one day searching the web, I realized I needed a Lomo LC-A camera.
This is a Russian made camera that was a knock off of another camera. It is
poorly made and by Japanese camera standards, a bad picture taker too. As the
legend goes, somewhere in the 1990’s a cult following developed and hasn’t stop
since.
Low and behold I went
out and bought 2 of these babies. I love them, but I also had a digital SLR – a
Canon 20D. After shooting with the Lomo, I wanted to take photos from my 20D
and give them the Lomo look and feel.
I searched and searched
and after trying several different Photoshop methods, I finally came up with my
own using a mix of different techniques. By all means, there are probably other
ways to do this, but this method has served me well.
Here is my step by step
on how I take a digital photo and make it Lomoified. I do have one suggestion
though, create an action script once get this down, it will save you a ton of
time.
Getting Started – Creating a Vignette
The first thing you want
to do is create the classic vignette that the Lomos are well known for and I
achieve this by doing a freehand lasso of a circle around the photo. It doesn’t
need to be perfect and to prevent hard edges, I set the feather to 80-90px
before creating the circle.
Once
you have set the feather (shown above) and have drawn the circle, you must
invert the selection. You can do this one of two ways. #1 Shift-Ctrl-I
(Shift-cmd-I on the mac) or #2 Go to the menu Select>Inverse.
Now
to achieve the vignette, I add a Levels layer. Note: I still have the invert selected.
This
will add a masked out layer on top of your original layer. I then adjust the
levels by moving the center arrow to the right. This will darken the edges,
giving me a vignette. The amount is up to you and in this case I went from 1.00
to 0.50 on the center number highlighted in the image below.
Now
you have a vignette.
On to making the photo look Lomo
Another
key to a Lomo picture is the color contrast and saturation. This occurs because
people with real Lomos use color slide film and cross-process the film in C41
chemicals.
For
those that don’t know what cross-processing is, it’s when you
develop film in a chemical other then what it was made for. Standard 35mm film
is usually processed in C41 chemicals and Color Slide film is usually processed
in E6 chemicals. Interesting results happen when you mix and match.
Typically,
Lomo owners will take color slide film (E6) and have it processed as standard
35mm film (C41). This results in over saturation of colors and at times some
freaky results. All of which make Lomo as special as they are.
To
get a digital photo to look Lomo, we need to fake the cross-processing effect
(E6 film in C41 chemicals).
At
this point I usually flatten the image using shift-ctrl-e (shift-cmd-e on the
mac) or go to the menu and Layer>Merge Layers.
First,
I add a curves layer and create a slanted S.
Then
I create a new layer on top of the other two layers. I select the paint bucket
and pick the color black and fill the new layer with solid black.
Then
I change the blending mode and set it to Hue and reduce the opacity to 40%.
Sharpening and Saving
This
has gotten us very close to be finished. Again, I flatten the photo by using
shift-ctrl-e (shift-cmd-e on the mac) or go to the menu and Layer>Merge
Layers.
Before
saving the photo as a JPG, you need to sharpen the photo. I use the unsharp
mask and Lab mode/lightness technique. The purpose of this step is that it adds
more contrast and darkens some of the areas as well. Now you can use whatever
sharpening technique you want, but the following method prevents the color
halos that come with certain sharpening techniques.
Go
to Image>Mode>Lab Color. If you hadn’t flattened the
image yet, it will ask you if want to flatten, please do so.
Then
select your channel window and click on the lightness channel. The 3 other
channels should deselect.
Then
go to the menu, select Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask.
I
like sharpness, so I set the Amount to 50%, Radius to 50% and the Threshold to
0. Click Ok. This is completely up to you on the settings. Plus it will depend
on the photo as well and use your best judgment/preference.
Go
to Image>Mode> RGB Color. You do not have to reselect the unchecked
channels, when converting back to RGB, the channels will automatically turn
back on and the photo will go back to be in color.
Now
you are done, save the file and share.
Final
step, save as a Jpeg.
Before the Lomo Photography Look
update: once you’ve read this
tutorial and had an experiment with the technique head to our Forumand share some of your results.