Tutorial Creating the high-contrast 'LOMO' look....

[specialman]

specialman submitted a new resource:

Creating the high-contrast 'LOMO' look.... - Creating the high-contrast 'LOMO' look....

You'll have heard of Lomo cameras, those iconic cameras associated with Lomography, the art of creating images with these unique pieces of kit that produce often blurry, high contrast and gritty images. Well, to get that look is quite easy – here's how:

Step 1
Get an images that has a fair range of tones. This is my parents' dog, Monty (looking suitably cheeky). It was taken on a very, very sunny day, so there's a good amount of...

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[hiddybiddy]

Great read, easy to foloe ui==instruction. Will give it a go ASAP.

 

[specialman]

Cheers hiddybiddy - have a play with that vignette and the levels to see just how far you can push the photo

 

[Les McLean]

Thanks for this, looks good-will give it a go

 

[specialman]

Here's an example I shot for the cover of a fly fishing magazine. I actually quite like the original shot, albeit a little flat. Colours are nice but it's not standout...

... and then I applied the same process (but with only about half the amount of the levels applied to create the vignette) and I actually like this even though it's quite desaturated. Kind of gives the salmon that bar of silver look and the vignette draws you in. The mountain of space in the image is for mastheads and straplines by the way

 

[Jaffster]

What a great guide. Thank you!

 

[wingo]

Thanks, always wanted to try the Lomo look!

 

[tomblacklock]

good tutiorial, thanks for going to the effort, needed to do something like this for my a level work, so thankyou

 

[allotropic]

oooh LOMO goodness, cheers

 

[gatecrasher3]

What a cracking effect. Just been having a play on one of the photos I took recently at the British Drift Championship.

Before

After

 

[Matel1z]

Great job for Pat.Thanx for sharing your tips. Gatecrasher3 your second photo has to much contrast.

 

[kiltedknite]

Hi, nice tutorial! A nice quick and easy method! I must try more of this.


Before:




After:



Thanks for the tutorial, given me a reason to dig out some old photos to experiment with!!

 

[Scrubdog]

Great thread (thanks Pat) and Stuart the difference with your picture is incredible.

Goint to see what I can do, very inspiring.

 

[specialman]

Step 7
While the Lightness channel is selected go to FILTER > SHARPEN > UNSHARP MASK. Keep the threshold slider on 0, move the radius slider to between 3 and 5 and move the amount slider to 50%. This will pick out the highlights and especially on portraits of wrinkly faces, this really brings out the definition in the wrinkles. Once this is applied you can flatten the image and turn the image back to RGB.

Step 8
I've lightened the image slightly in levels as a final tweak but you can see the massive difference between the original image (right) when placed against the 'Lomoed' file.

This is an effect that can be as radical or as subtle as you wish but the main thing is you get to bring out detail and contrast in the image that would be harder to bring out just adjusting the levels slider in Photoshop. It works on portraits, landscapes, still lifes - whatever you want to shoot just try it and see just how far your images can go.

 

[jxmt018897]

Very useful! thank you!