Lomochrome - A Different Way to Take Pictures
Most of you are likely aware that I like to take photos. You might even have read my post last year on the old film camera that I brought back to life. I am still using that film camera and it has been a source of fun and adventure over the last year. If you are not into the photography aspect of my blog you may want to quit here and don’t worry urbanist topics will return with the next article. However, there are a few galleries in the post if you just want to see some unique photos of Victoria, perfect for creating customized photo cards, and mastering the art.
I started taking pictures with film cameras, because well digital cameras were not a thing until about twenty years ago. Back then though I didn’t think about what I was doing especially when it came to film. I mostly used a camera the way that we all use our cell phones today, to capture the moment and take pictures when I was on vacation. I would get a roll of Kodak or Fuji with a 400 ISO and be done with thinking about it. All I knew was the 400 ISO was for most situations. Over the last year with a better understanding of of film speed and exposure generally, I have been experimenting. In fact perhaps one of the most fun things I have done recently is try a film that scares me a little. Just in the last week I shot my first box of slide film which is notoriously difficult to expose well and I certainly didn’t ace it but it was fun trying.
There have been two types of film that I would say are the most eclectic of any that I have shot this year and they are the two types of Lomochrome film, Metropolis and Purple. Lomochrome are the “unique chemical formulas and trippy emulsion” films by Lomography, a cool film company out of the UK. You don’t have to go all the way to the UK or even order it off the website, it is available right here in Victoria at the best camera store that I am aware of anywhere, Camera Traders.
So I should say that I am not an expert in using these films, I have shot just shot 2 rolls of each. If you are using a film camera and want to have some fun, I would highly recommend trying one of them. I will get into the films more specifically now.
Lomochrome Metropolis
This was the first of the two Lomochrome films that I tried and I was a bit nervous. I had watched a couple of videos about them on Youtube. The odd thing about both films is that they are ISO variable in that you can shoot them from 100-400 and achieve different results based on this. From the videos I watched it seemed that trying it down the middle might be a good start, so I metered the first roll mostly around 200 ISO with some photos up to 400. The film provides a very bleak de-saturated look; which given the current state of the world has an honesty to it. Both reds and greens stand out while other colours creep into the background. I have included a few shots from the first roll below.
For the second roll, I decided to change it up a little and metered for 200 ISO all the way through but then overexposed it by one stop. I think that this was a mistake overall. I want to try a roll with it all metered at 100 ISO and kept that way. Still a few of the pictures in this roll did turn out pretty well and I have included them as well as some of the ones that didn’t work below. I think that with some practice this could actually be a solid film to shot every once and awhile for just the mood it provides.
Lomochrome Purple
This film is at the same time so much fun and completely frustrating. Still I have taken some absolutely amazing pictures with it. This is a colour shift film. Perhaps the most famous colour shift film there has ever been is Kodak Aerochrome. Lomochrome Purple is meant to mimic this film but it does it with a little more grittiness than you will see in the Kodak film. Essentially, the film will shift greens into purples and purples to whites. There are some other shifts that you will see when shooting depending on your metering and the exposure. Like with Metropolis, I watched a couple of YouTube videos before going out and again with that first roll kept to the upper side of the ISO range in the 200-400 area. Some of the pictures turned out amazingly but the ones that were closer to 400 or overexposed actually became too purple and it kind drowned out all colour. That still provided a cool effect but it was not what I was expecting. It wasn’t clear to me what I was doing that made the colours change so dramatically. If you know, please leave a comment below. One thing that works surprisingly well are pictures of people and portraits, maybe because it makes the person stand out against the strange background.
For the second roll, I broke with what I had done on the previous three rolls of Lomochrome and shot it all at 100 ISO and I have to say that this turned out very well though again maybe it is a little overexposed still. I would say that I ended up with the most shots I liked in this roll out of all four. You can see many of them below.
If you want to try a roll or two head down to Camera Traders and get some. You can also get it from the Lomography Store but I expect it might take awhile to arrive. For developing, because this uses a C-41 development process you can get it done at London Drugs at Harris Green Village or at Prism Imaging on Fort Street. If you do go out and try some, please share a photo or two with me and if you have any questions about the films I would be happy to try and answer though of course take my mixed results into account.