The Ultimate Lomo Photography Effect Tutorial

Pye Jirsa

Updated on:

how-to-create-lomo-effect-photoshop-video-tutorial-splash

Lomo Photography or Lomography has gained quite the cult following in recent years. And it’s no wonder. These little Lo-Fi cameras, such as the Lomo LC-A, produce some really cool and compelling images. Aside from the Lo-Fi look of the Lomo, the other main feature of Lomography is the cross processing of the Color Slide Film.  A while back, I was trying to recreate this look on my digital photographs. However, the few tutorials I found online, while they were a start, didn’t really get me to the final Lomo look that I was trying to achieve. So, I made my own process, and now I have turned it into a full in depth tutorial for all of our SLR Lounge community.

What is Lomo Photography?

A style of analog photography characterized by its emphasis on spontaneity, unpredictability, and vivid colors. Derived from the Lomo LC-A camera produced in the Soviet Union, Lomo photography celebrates the imperfections and quirks of film cameras, resulting in images with high contrast, saturated colors, and distinctive vignetting. Lomo photographers often experiment with various film types, multiple exposures, and unconventional shooting techniques, seeking to capture the essence of the moment rather than aiming for technical perfection. The aesthetic of Lomo photography lies in its ability to evoke a sense of nostalgia, artistic expression, and a departure from traditional photographic norms.

Lomo Photography Tutorials

We have broken this tutorial into two distinct parts. In Part I, we are going to take a look at Lomo Photography and dissect the images characteristics so that we know exactly how to reproduce them in Adobe Photoshop.  In Part II, we are going to start Photoshopping our image from start to finish. So, if you want to get straight to the Adobe Photoshop part of this tutorial, skip to the second video in Part II.

Part I – Understanding Lomography and Analyzing the Characteristics of a Lomo Photograph

Our goal, is to help photographers understand and be able to recreate effects on their own by analyzing and dissecting image characteristics of Lomo photographs. If you are too excited and want to get right to the Photoshopping, then skip to Part II below. Otherwise, enjoy this first video, and then move on to the second.

Part II – Recreating the Lomo Effect in Adobe Photoshop – Creating Lomography from Digital Photography

In Part I, we identified the steps we need to turn our digital images into great looking Lomo style images. In Part II, we are going to teach step by step how to turn your digital photographs into Lomographs. Specifically, we will create the Lomo effect by recreating these characteristics that we identified in Part I.

Distinct Characteristics of a Lomo Photograph:

  1. Cross Processed Colors
  2. Increased Saturation
  3. Blown Highlights/Clipped Shadows
  4. Heavy Vignetting
  5. Film Grain
  6. Sharp Center/Blurred Edges

So, let’s get on to the good stuff and actually create our Lomo image in the Adobe Photoshop video tutorial below.

Hope you all enjoy! Let us know what you think.