lomothe magazine of canadian lomography

Jordan ThompsonLOMO WEDDINGS

Garrick KozierLEARN TO LOMO

ReviewDIANA MINI 35MM

Alex RohneIPHONEOGRAPHY & DIGITAL LOMO

SPRING 2011

Long Live the Polaroid

An Interview withGORD ARTHUR

Take a picture of music.

With the Lensbaby Composer, it’s just a matter of focus.

Capture the invisible. The electric tremor in the air. The tension of ten fingers and six strings. The sound of every rockin’ note, from the very first riff to the last, lingering echo.

Versatile, easy to use, and adaptable to almost any camera, the LENSBABY COMPOSER lets you focus on how the world feels — not just how it looks.

See in a new way. Visit www.lensbaby.com.

Jordan Thompson: Project Manager

Ryan McBride: Editor

Garrick Kozier: Marketing Manager

Alex Rohne: Creative Director

Lomo: The Magazine of Canadian Lomography is equal parts creative manifesto, instruction manual, and showcase for Canadians who practice or appreciate the art of Lomography.

“What the heck is Lomography?” you ask. Well, to define it too closely would be to defeat its purpose. Lomography cannot be defined, simply because its resistance to definitions is part of what defines it.

Okay. That sounds kinda pretentious. But don’t worry. Lomography is anything but highbrow. Look at it this way: “Lomo” is a small piece of life captured on film. It’s a big thing that looks small and a small thing that looks big. It cannot be staged, or planned, or even expected. Lomo happens when it decides to happen. It is mundanely beautiful.

Still confused? Here are a few key things to remember about Lomo:

Lomo is casual.The greatest Lomographs are spontaneous, genuine glimpses of life, captured on analog film using cheap toy cameras such as Holgas, Dianas, Polaroids, etc. Lomo cameras are designed to be small and easy to carry with you at all times, because in a world where even reality TV is staged, it’s the candid moments that are most beautiful.

Lomo is vibrant.It loves bright neon accents and saturated, psychedelic colours. This is just one of the ways that Lomographs turn ordinary moments into extraordinary art.

Lomo is not perfect.And it doesn’t want to be. Light leaks, vignetting, focal blur, off-kilter compositions: these are all things that any sane, serious photographer would toss in the trash. But Lomography welcomes them with open arms. The more banged up the camera and lens, the more expired the film, the more casual the photographer, the better the Lomo.

Lomo is none of the above.Or all. Or some. Lomography is as individual as the person who practices it. Every Lomo photo has its own personality, its own story, and can never be duplicated.

Perhaps the only truly definitive aspect of Lomography is its accessibility. If you can click a button, you can produce stunning Lomographic photographs.

Still confused? That’s just fine. Take whatever inspiration you like from the pages of this magazine and try out Lomography for yourself. Create your own definition of Lomo, and share the results with us.

Printed and distributed in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. 191 Lombard Avenue • Winnipeg, MB • R3B 0X1

www.lomomag.ca • info@lomomag.ca (204) 898-8673

lomothe magazine of canadian lomography

Spring 2011: Vol. 1, No. 1

On the front cover: “X-Ray of a Plastic Toy Camera” by R. Fassbind

ContentsPhoto by Alex RohneTaken with iPhone 3GS

FEATURES

Everybody’s Doing It:Learn to Take Photos Like the Cool Kidsby Garrick Kozier

Something Old, Something New:Lomo Wedding Photographyby Jordan Thompson

PROFILE

Gord Arthur:The Polaroid is Dead, Long Live the Polaroidby Ryan McBride

LOMO REVIEW

Diana Mini 35mmby Garrick Kozier

6 17

21

12

LOMO TECH

When Worlds Collide:IPhoneographyby Alex Rohne

Faking It: Creating the Lomo Look in Photoshopby Alex Rohne

HAPPY ACCIDENTS

Arianne Angela Solis

Lauren Beerman

10

24

520

Sprint 2011 5

Photographed by: Arianne Angela Solis, WinnipegEquipment: Diana (non-LSI)

Location: Winnipeg Jazz Festival

HAPPY ACCIDENTS

6 Spring 2011

Everybody’s Doing ItLearn to

Take Photos Like the Cool Kids

Photo courtesy of Flickr

FEATURE

Sprint 2011 7

lomothe magazine of canadian lomography

Written by Garrick Kozier

Who knew Winnipeg, Manitoba was a Lomo hotbed? Well, we did. If you want to learn

Lomography from the best, look no further than PrairieView School of Photography.

The school, located at 464 Hargrave Avenue in the heart of the Exchange District, offers everything from private lessons to full-blown diploma courses on photography. And, guess what? They teach Lomography techniques as well.

“I grew up in an analog world,” says Craig Koshyk, 48, the school’s owner. “When I started the school, film was still the dominant form. Then it was overtaken by digital, and now the digital medium is trying to emulate film. It’s like a snake eating its own tail. That’s why we continue to teach film here.”

Koshyk says the Lomography classes appeal to students who want to break free from the perfectionism of digital photography and embrace “the feeling that I have no freakin’ idea what’s going to happen when I push the shutter.”

“PrairieView teaches students about Lomography because it is a beautiful, candid, and natural way of producing photography. It can be easy, and it for the most part is, but it’s still important to have a grasp of the methodology and theory before getting started,” says Dan Harper, a graduate and former instructor at PrairieView.

The school provides students with an intense world-class education on how to become a photographer. Actually, scratch that. It teaches students to become amazing photographers. Classes cover everything from lighting, shot composition, exposure and film processing to wardrobe and make-up for fashion shoots.

8 Spring 2011

Photo by Garrick Kozier

Photos by Garrick Kozier

FEATURE: LEARNING LOMO

“There aren’t as many rules when it comes to Lomography. You don’t need a firm grasp on digital photography,” says Harper, showing off a collection of Fisheye photos he produced last year at the Forks Plaza Skatepark.

Harper is 41 but doesn’t look a day over 30. He says Facebook and Flickr have really popularized Lomography, especially for young people. “A lot of my friends who are into Lomography scan and then post their pics online. They go Lomo when they’re at parties, or just goofing around on a Sunday afternoon. Kids can relate to the scenes, but are still fascinated by the raw and unprocessed look and feel of the photos.”

Now, you might want to be sitting down for this. A year’s worth of photographic studies at PrairieView will set you back a cool $13,000. Which is worth it if you’re aspiring to be the next Annie Leibovitz, but maybe not so much if photography is merely an occasional hobby.

Dallas Ludwick, also a PrairieView graduate, has some advice for prospective Lomographers who want to learn on their own. “The first thing I recommend is to just find a camera you’re comfortable using. Don’t worry about spending too much money on one either. You can find ones for $20. And film is usually real cheap as well.”

And then? “Take photos of anything and everything you see.”Ludwick, a freelance photographer, says learning to Lomo

is just like learning any other art form. Painting, sculpting, even other forms of photography take practice, practice, and more practice. Lomography is no different.

“A lot of people think Lomography is an easy art form to get into because all you have to do is point and shoot your camera, and boom, you’ve made something,” quips Ludwick. “For some people, it is easy. With a little luck and a keen eye, they can take seemingly random objects and make them come to life in unexpected ways. But, for others, taking photos can be a tough task.”

If all these tips still aren’t doing the trick, you have a few more options. Enrolled at the University of Manitoba or at Red River College? If you are, you’re in luck. Both offer programs in photography and analog film studies. So, instead of wasting your time and money on Human Anatomy 101, take some of their photography courses. You won’t regret it.

PrairieView’s analog and Lomography courses run throughout the year. To register or find out more, visit www.prairieview.ca.

Photos by Garrick Kozier

FACT: In the time that it takes you to read this advertisement, approximately 1,376 gorgeous, one-of-a-kind photo ops have passed you by.

That’s the bad news. The good news? The future is in your hands. Get a Nikon in ‘em too and...

START SHOOTIN’.

The little thingsmake the greatest photos.

CAPTURE LIFE

10 Spring 2011

Sprint 2011 11

“Is that your dad’s camera? I thought he told you to ask

before taking his things!”

No, mom. This camera doesn’t belong to my old man. It may look old, but the Diana Mini is nothing to shake a walking cane at.

I purchased the camera for a cool $85 off eBay. The seller, going by the moniker of cameraguy33, informed me the Diana was brand new and ready to go.

As soon as it arrived, I was impressed and excited with its sleek yet simple design. The camera looks like it belongs in a toy museum – or even scattered amoung the toys belonging to my 5-year-old cousin. I also got a tad too excited to see what I thought was a small Canadian flag placed on the front of the camera’s lense casing. Upon closer review, however, I discovered it was just the word “MINI” written in red block letters.

If you haven’t used an analog camera before, the Diana Mini is the perfect one to learn with. You pretty much open its back, load your film, and start clicking.

The added beauty of the camera is its small size. You can take this thing anywhere -- which is a refreshing change from lugging around your digital SLR and all its

finicky lenses, cases, and batteries. Taking photos with the Diana Mini is also easy. With

two different shooting formats to choose from – square and half-frame – and no exposure controls to worry about, your Flickr and Facebook photo albums will soon be filled with photos your friends will envy.

While the camera isn’t quite a steal at $85 (and that’s without the add-on flash or case), you’ll get about 75 photos out of a single roll of 35 mm film. I wouldn’t recommend the flash, unless your looking to take photos at night or dusk. If that’s the case, a flash will set you back about $20 to $35.

All in all, the Diana Mini is a fun and easy-to-use camera. Take it everywhere and be ready for photo ops wherever they arise.

The Specs:• Film: 35mm• Shutter Speed: 1/60, Bulb (N, B)• Viewfinder• Flash Attachment: not included• Wide-angle lens

The Verdict:Lomo at its most basic. The perfect place to begin.

Reviewed by Garrick Kozier

DIANAMini 35mm

REVIEW

12 Spring 2011

The object in the hands of Winnipeg photographer Gord Arthur looks innocent enough at first: a flat,

buff-coloured brick with a seam at one end, just large enough to tuck into a coat pocket.

But with a gesture worthy of a magician, he cracks open the seam and the object suddenly doubles in size, ejecting a compact viewfinder and lens.

“Behold the Polaroid SX-70,” Arthur says. “This was my first camera. It’s still my favourite.”

Now 52, Arthur bought the SX-70 in 1974 at a Woodward’s department store for $100. (That was a lot of money back then.) The camera, which came with a precision lens, focus, and exposure control, was state-of-the-art for its time. He still remembers the first picture he took with it. “I snapped a shot of my baby niece. The picture came out and I could see it developing right there in my hand. It was like magic.”

For nearly 30 years, he’s used this camera to capture thousands of instant snapshots in and around his home in Winnipeg’s Fort Rouge neighbourhood.

But t these aren’t your average Polaroids.These pictures have bite.

Ryan McBride

The Polaroid Is Dead:Long Live the Polaroid

PROFILE

Sprint 2011 13Polaroids by Gord Arthur

14 Spring 2011

At first glance, they appear to catalogue an endless variety of discarded toys, suburban landscapes, and curious lawn ornaments. Look closer, though, and you can’t help but sense something violent and disturbing has just taken place. The toys rest in desperate, corpse-like poses. The empty yards vibrate with menace. And the lawn ornaments stare back at you.

“I think of my Polaroids as little mysteries for the viewer to solve,” Arthur says. “I sometimes call them existential crime scene photos.”

Mary Reid, curator of contemporary art and photography at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, agrees that Arthur’s Polaroids are no mere snapshots. “He’s definitely an artist of merit. He creates these fabulously curious experiences in his work. He chooses his subjects carefully and then frames them in a way that evokes a whole range of emotions, and that makes them art.”

The best of Arthur’s photographs have been showcased in local galleries such as the Semai Gallery, Cre8ery, and the

Millenium Library’s Blankstein Gallery. Some have sold for as much as $200 a piece.

Semai Gallery director Taskashi Iwasaki says Arthur’s ability to fuse the strange and the ordinary in a single image gives his photos their magical appeal. “They show us things we see every day but never stop to really notice.”

A child’s pink plastic play set, peeking out over the rim of a graffiti-splattered BFI bin, would hardly stop most of us in our tracks. But isolated in one of Arthur’s Polaroid frames, the abandoned toy invites us to view it as the main character in a tale of misfortune and woe.

The effect can often be quite funny, says Jordan Miller, director of Cre8ery. When “Uncertain Times,” a collection of Arthur’s Polaroids, appeared there in August 2010, Miller says she was struck by how many people laughed out loud while looking at them. “People often take art so seriously,” she says. “It was nice to see them have fun with it.”

Arthur himself admits that much of the humour in his Polaroids comes from looking at his surroundings

PROFILE: GORD ARTHUR

Sprint 2011 15

through the eyes of an outsider. Even though he moved to Winnipeg from Glasgow, Scotland when he was eight, he says he “never really felt like a Winnipegger. More like a stranger in a strange land.”

What makes Winnipeg such a peculiar landscape for him to come to grips with? “I call it ‘prairie despair’,” he says, referring to “the almost comical aura of tragedy that accumulates around the objects Winnipeggers discard.”

Arthur has found many of his favourite subjects – “out-of-place holiday decorations” – sitting in plain view in the yards of his own neighbourhood. Many of his Polaroids capture Christmas’s jolly denizens – plastic snowmen, Santa Clauses, reindeer – marching across the sere summer grass, or posing in the warm sunlight. “So many people here keep their holiday decorations up all year round,” he laughs. “Are they being willfully absurd, or just lazy?”

Whatever catches his eye, he’s careful not to alter or manipulate it before taking the photo. Instead, he lets the storytelling come out in the composition. “Usually I have to

get very close to the subject to get the right photograph,” he says.

Sometimes this involves walking up a private driveway or taking a step or two into a yard. “So far no one’s come out with a shotgun to scare me off,” he says. “Maybe I’ve been lucky.”

He finds other subjects while riding around on his bike. “It’s all a matter of luck and timing,” he says. “When a picture is successful, it’s because I didn’t expect to find what I ended up photographing. When I see something and don’t have my camera with me, and I go back later to capture the shot, the magic is gone.”

According to Reid, the Polaroid format itself contributes to the magic of Arthur’s work. “At some point soon there will be no more film of that kind of vintage,” she says, referring to Polaroid’s decision to discontinue production of their instant film in 2008. “So there’s this wonderful synergy between the ephemeral surface of the Polaroid and the ephemeral nature of what he’s seeing. He’s also

lomothe magazine of canadian lomography

16 Spring 2011

playing with the medium. He’s finding creative solutions to the limitations of what he has to work with.”

Arthur says it’s precisely the limitations of Polaroid – its unpredictability, its imprecision, its scarcity – that appeal to him the most.

For instance, while his camera does let him control focus and exposure to some extent, much of what appears in the final image is the result of luck. “No matter how clearly you imagine the picture beforehand, you always end up with something unexpected, whether it’s in the lighting or focus or how the colours turn out.”

Arthur tells a story to illustrate his point. In 2009, he bought a batch of instant film from Unique Photo in New Jersey, one of Polaroid’s last remaining suppliers. But when the order arrived on his doorstep, he discovered the film had already expired.

“I went ahead and used it anyway,” he says. “I noticed right away that the colours were a lot less saturated than what I was used to. But strangely enough, that really worked for the photos I was taking. It ended up giving me exactly the kind of image I was after in the first place.”

Ironically, the same chemical properties that help create Arthur’s distinctive-looking photographs also work to destroy them. Some of the pictures have already begun to fade. “I call them ‘age-toned’,” he says. “It’s the price I pay for using an unstable medium.”

And because Polaroid film is now so expensive and hard to come by, he also finds himself being a lot more selective about what he chooses to capture. “You can’t just point and shoot everything you see, like you can with a digital camera. Every image becomes a lot more precious.” Arthur says this is especially poignant because so few of the pictures he takes “have the magic” he’s after. “A good photo is no easier to produce than a good poem or a novel. I’m lucky to get something I respond to afterwards, that I’m personally satisfied with. If I can capture on film what I felt when I saw the subject, and the camera didn’t put up a fight, then I’ve succeeded. But it’s so rare.”

And yes, the camera sometimes does indeed put up a fight. In winter, the battery often freezes. The film also reacts strangely to the cold, producing purplish, bruised-looking partial exposures. Arthur has managed to solve the problem by tucking the film under his arm to keep it warm. He refers to the results as his “arm-pit photography.”

With only a dwindling stock of instant film still left in his freezer, Arthur has begun to look farther afield for a new supplier. He says he’s encouraged by Fujifilm’s recent efforts to produce a second-generation Polaroid camera and film system, but the credit card-size pictures are “too tiny” to suit his style of photography. He says he’s also intrigued by the Impossible Project (www.the-impossible-project.com), a group of former Polaroid employees struggling to produce instant film in a factory in the Netherlands. Unfortunately, he says, their film is hard to order, and so far the reviews of its quality haven’t been all that stellar. Critics have complained about everything from blown exposures to a clumsy developing process. “I’m still waiting to see if they work out the kinks,” he says. “Call me old fashioned, but I like the film the way it was.”

If vintage Polaroid film does run out for good – and the

day may come soon – Arthur says he’ll have no choice but to go digital. Last year, his girlfriend gave him a Sony point and shoot, which he uses for vacation photos. Still, he says he’s loath to make the switch for good. “The results are always flatter. The images don’t have the same warmth as film, the same expressiveness as Polaroid in particular. Film is a different thing than digital in that it lends a certain romance to the image.”

And while he’s also tried some of the software that turns digital photos into Polaroid lookalikes (“Faux-laroids”), Arthur says they, too, lack the magic he’s after. “There’s a value in authenticity,” he explains. “People like the Polaroids because they’re tangible, they have a history. They’re objects in and of themselves. They’re real.”

Photo by Ryan McBride

PROFILE: GORD ARTHUR

Sprint 2011 17

iPhon

eogr

aphy

When

Worlds

Collide

18 Spring 2011

What is it about the iPhone that makes us at Lomo swoon?

It’s silver and shiny, and makes that cute little noise when someone Facebook messages you. But for a new school of Lomographers, the best thing about the iPhone 4G is its five-megapixel camera.

Many photographers are putting down their bulky digital SLRs in favour of the lightweight, easy-to-use, point-and-shoot quality of the iPhone. And what’s not to love? The instant availability of the iPhone allows photographers to snap, edit, and post their photos in minutes to social channels such as Flickr, Twitter, and Facebook. Both the 3G and 4G versions of the iPhone have cameras, but we recommend the 4G. It has features such as HD (High-Definition), which instantly sharpens and adjusts the brightness and contrast of your image. But clearly, the greatest features of the iPhone are its “apps”, or applications.

Some of these apps produce stunning photographic results. With some help from two talented Winnipeg Lomographers, we’d like to show you how to use some of these to get the most amazing pictures possible with your iPhone.

“I find taking pictures with a point-and-shoot like the iPhone to be more fun,” explains Winnipeg visual artist and photographer Kert Gartner. “I’m taking way more pictures than when I had to haul a huge camera around.”

One of the major bonuses of the iPhone is its lightweight structure and easy point-and-shoot quality. That’s why Gartner says he was first drawn to the product. “It’s always with you and you can’t usually say that about a large SLR camera. There is less stopping you to take a quick photo of something that is happening right then and there.”

Gartner, who still prefers his old Canon AE-1 to anything digital for his professional photography, can’t seem to escape the allure of the iPhone for personal photography. He’s even created an app for it. CineCrop allows a person to take their iPhone photographs and crop them to cinematic aspect ratios, such as widescreen.

With the invention of countless Lomography-inspired apps, the iPhone and analog worlds have collided, but with minimal

Photos by Kert Gartner

casualties. But when you really get down to it, Gartner says, the two worlds are a lot more similar than most people think.

“The whole “shoot from the hip” idea, that it’s okay for the pictures to be out of focus and not perfect because it’s about capturing a moment, that’s the perfect philosophy for Lomography and the iPhone.”

Gartner laughs. “It’s like they were just meant to be together!” But not all Lomographers would agree with Gartner’s

lighthearted comparison of vintage cameras and film to the flash of the iPhone. “I think the reason Lomography was established was to promote analog and creative photography,” says Winnipeg Lomographer and avid blogger Arianne Solis. “Anything else that goes beyond analog is a different story altogether.”

Solis has yet to jump on the iPhone trend. She’s opted instead to use hers as a personal organizer. For photos, she carries her Lomo LC-A around with her. “I like cameras too much to rely on phones for photography. It’s like relying on your microwave to watch a new episode of The Big Bang Theory,” she laughs, rolling her eyes.

Although Gartner and Solis have obvious philosophical differences, both do agree on the simplicity of the iPhone and the quality of the images it produces. “I think the growing popularity of applying film filters and styles to digital photos speaks to that behaviour that people want things now,” says Solis. “You don’t get that chance when you go down to the basics and do conventional film photography.”

Gartner agrees. “Don’t buy something you’re never going to use. If you just want to take fun pictures that look cool and you’re not too worried about the technical aspects, just get an iPhone.”

For the first time, almost every step of the photographic process fits right in your pocket. This means the opportunities to spontaneously capture the world around us have practically exploded. And when it comes right down to it, iPhone photography is just fun. What can be more “Lomo” than that? So grab some friends, head to your local pub, and don’t forget your iPhone – because the best memories are the ones you can capture in the moment, and share with a single click.

Written by Alex Rohne

TECH

Sprint 2011 19

Photography Appsfor Your iPhoneHipstamatic, $1.99

Your digital photos will never look so analog! Create stylized images without using Photoshop. With Hipstamatic, anyone can take a cool profile picture without being a graphic design wiz or photography genius. Built-in Facebook and Flickr sharing capabilities make the Hisptamatic app a must-have for the digital Lomographer.

ProCamera, $2.99

Winner of Gizmodo’s Best Photo App Award 2010, ProCamera turns your iPhone into a sophisticated digital camera. It’s also a breeze to use. Some of the features ProCamera boasts are an anti-shake image stabilizer, expert and idiot modes, white balance, and a free compre-hensive iPhone user guild which offers tips, tricks and hidden features.

FX Photo Studio, $1.99

Named one of the Top 3 Best Photography Apps by Best App Ever Awards, FX Photo Studio offers 181 (and counting) photo effects and filters, including a stellar Lomo filter. The app also offers photo con-tests and the ability to upload to Facebook.

CameraBag, $1.99

CameraBag is another amazing app that allows the use of classic camera filters and effects, including Helga, Fisheye, and Polaroid-like frames. The New York Times says, “If you buy just one filter app, make it CameraBag.”

CineCrop, $0.99

Created by Winnipeg’s own Kert Gartner, CineCrop allows you to crop your iPhone photos to cinematic aspect ratios—the very ones used by Hollywood cinematographers. Convert your photos to formats such as Panavision Widescreen, 16x9 High Definition Television, and 16mm Film.

lomothe magazine of canadian lomography

20 Spring 2011

Photographed by: Lauren Beerman, Winnipeg Equipment: 1974 Nikon 35mm

Location: Borough Market in London

HAPPY ACCIDENTS

Sprint 2011 21

Something Old, Something NewLomo Wedding Photography

22 Spring 2011

The way Lomography is blowing up all over the world, it’s no great surprise that

it’s managed to find its way into weddings.

Racing emotions, uncontained happiness, inexhaustible dancing and joyous celebration. Lomography and weddings were made for each other.

So what is it about Lomography that seems to click so remarkably well with weddings? Is it the way the vibrant colours seem to perfectly communicate the excitement in the air, as if it were light itself? Is it the candidness of photos that flawlessly capture moments of profound emotion? Or does the imperfection Lomo somehow combine with pristine beauty to create an alluring sense of irony?

Winnipeg photographer Kim Bernard says all of the above.“That’s what makes choosing Lomomography for your wedding

such a unique, but great, choice,” Bernard explains. “First off, it’s not really the standard for wedding photos, so no matter what, you’re going to end up with something unique. Something with a definite ‘wow’ factor that people are going to be blown away by.”

Apart from being simply “unique”, Lomographic wedding photos

Written by Jordan Thompson

are able to tell the story of the day in a way that no other style of photography can.

“What’s one of the number one rules of Lomography? Don’t think, shoot.” Bernard says. “When you adopt that mentality, and bring it to a wedding, the results are phenomenal.”

“When you have a candid shot of someone, a truly genuine photograph, you can almost read the subject’s thoughts just from the expression on their face. You can look at the photo and visualize in your mind what would be going on if it suddenly sprang to life, and that’s what Lomography is capable of producing.”

Jim Bennett and Allison Bell got engaged on August 22, 2010, and though they haven’t set a date for their wedding yet, they know they want to have some Lomographic photos taken when they tie the knot.

“I’ve taken my own before with this little guy,” says Bennett, 26, holding up his Holga 135BC 35mm camera. “I’ve just absolutely loved what I’ve been able to produce with it. Lomo pictures just have this certain X factor that you can’t really put your finger on, but you just know they’re amazing.”

Bell, 24, agrees with her husband-to-be that the pictures offer something unique, but says that while she’ll allow the Lomo photos to be taken, she is planning on being safe rather than sorry.

“I think the style is cool,” Bell says, “but I don’t think I’d want my entire wedding album to be full of Lomo pictures.”

“They seem like a bit of a novelty to me, I guess. I can see myself looking at photos like that and smiling, or even laughing, but I still want the photos that will get me teary-eyed when I’m 70 years old. And I’m not sure that a Lomo approach can deliver that. It’s the little girl in me. Every woman has one.”

Kim Bernard says she can see where someone like Bell is coming from, and suggests an alternative option.

FEATURE

Sprint 2011 23

“I’m not sure that someone would want to actually hire a photographer to take Lomo photos at their wedding, especially since it’s such an amateur form of photography that really anyone can do,” Bernard says.

“Holga cameras are cheap, they’re even referred to as toy cameras, and some of them really do look like a child’s toy,” she says. “I would suggest just ordering one online, and giving it to a responsible guest, and having that person just go crazy with it.”

Lomography.com is a Canadian website dedicated to all things Lomo, and even offers a wide variety of Holga cameras for online purchase. For as little as $49, consumers can have their own camera capable of producing that one-of-a-kind Lomo look and feel. Of course, they can also be purchased second hand from sites such

as eBay or Kijiji.Putting such a camera in the hands of a guest will likely result in

photos that portray a more spontaneous, playful perspective on the wedding, and also create an exciting atmosphere at the wedding and reception.

So while Lomography can give a candid and vibrant look to your wedding photography, it’s certainly not for everyone. There’s no harm in having a Lomo camera or two floating around during the festivities of the day, and the results will undoubtedly be memories to last a lifetime. The question remains: does it accurately capture and deliver the look and feel that you’d envisioned for your wedding photos?

The answer entirely depends on how you see the world.

lomothe magazine of canadian lomography

Photos courtesy of Flickr

24 Spring 2011

Faking It

Written by Alex Rohne

From the first time I saw a photo in the Lomographic style, I

wanted to shoot one of my own.

But, being a child of the 1990s, I grew up with a digital camera in my lap, rather than analog. Even after getting turned on to analog photography, I could never shake the idea of creating the Lomo look digitally.

After searching out and trying several different Photoshop methods, I finally came up with my own by combining a number of different techniques. There are countless other ways to do this, of course – but this method has served me well.

Creating the Vignette

Before you start, make sure your image is in CMYK mode. This will make your image look better, provide you with a wider range of colours to work with, and give you greater control over your image later on. To make your image CMYK, go to the Image Menu>Mode>CMYK. It will ask you if you want to switch your

colours. You do. This might change the look of the hues a little, but no worries, you will be changing things even more later on.

The first thing you want to do is create the classic vignette that Lomos are well known for. I achieve this by drawing a freehand lasso of a circle around the photo. It doesn’t need to be perfect, but to prevent hard edges; I set the feather to between 80 and 90 pixels before creating the circle. Once you’ve set the feather and

drawn the circle, invert your selection. You can do this one of two ways: Shift-Ctrl-I (Shift-Cmd-I on a Mac), or go to the Select menu and choose Inverse.

To create the vignette, choose the Levels option under the Images toolbar. Here you can change the brightness of the selection you made. For the purpose of showing how dramatic you can make it look, I’ve changed my shadows (indicated by the black arrow on the left) to 163, my midtones (gray arrow) to 0.82, and my highlights (white arrow) to 255, with an output level of 245.

This will give your image instant dramatic contrast. Play around with the settings to get the exact effect you want. Each image will have different levels of native contrast depending on the light in which it was photographed, and will look different the more you

Creating the Lomo Look in Photoshop

TECH

Sprint 2011 25

play with it. Some people may choose to stop here. With a proper

vignette, you can achieve some awesome effects that really spice up your digital photos. But if you want the full Lomo effect, you have to play around with the images colour levels too. This often means playing with saturation and contrast.

Saturation and Colours

Real Lomo photos often have a bold, fully saturated look because the photographer has taken the photo with a colour slide film and then cross-processed it in the darkroom.

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. For example, standard 35mm film is usually processed in C41 chemicals and colour slide film is usually processed in E6 chemicals. Interesting results happen when you mix and match.

Typically, Lomo owners will take colour slide film (E6) and

have it processed as standard 35mm film (C41). This results in the oversaturation of colours and, at times, some freaky results. All of which make Lomo images so special.

To get a digital photo to look Lomo, we need to fake the cross-processing effect (E6 film in C41 chemicals).

There are a few ways that you can go about getting the right cross-process effect, so play around with both to find which works best for you and your image. Some would now choose to create a slanted S curve layer, but it’s easier to just skip right on to the next step and create a full black box over top of your photo. (We will come back to creating the S curve layer later).

To create the black box, select the rectangle tool near the bottom of your side tool bar. Make sure your colour box below it is set to black, and then draw a simple box that fully covers your original image. You will notice that this creates a second layer on your image if you look under the Layers pop-out box to the right of the program window.

Next, go into your Adjustments pop-out window, which is located right above the Layers window, and select Curves. In the box beside it you will see a grid with a straight diagonal line. This is your curve line. Grab the line and pull it in different directions to create an S. Notice how the shape of the S changes the way the light plays on the contrast values of your image. You

may have to move the opacity on the layer to about the 40 per cent mark to really see the difference. Mine is set at 31 per cent opacity. The effect will also look stronger if you change the layer option from Normal to Hue.

Now that you’ve created a basic Lomo effect, you can continue to play around with levels and saturation in case you feel your image could use more or less colouration. But for a true Lomo effect, more is always better. In this case, I’m going back into the Brightness and Contrast menu as well as my Colour menu to trade some of the green for more blue, but depending on the photo, you may need to play with other colours to achieve the look you want.

Sharpening and Masking

This is the last step, and really sets your image apart from the competition. Go to Image>Mode>Lab Colour. If you haven’t flattened the image yet, it will ask if want to. You do.

Next, select your channel window and click on the Lightness channel. The other three channels should deselect.

Then, go to the menu, select Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask. I like a massive sharpness ratio (it just look so cool), so I set the Amount to 50, Radius to 50, and Threshold to 0. Click Ok. The

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Mask setting is completely up to you. What you select will depend on the photo and your own best judgment, but remember: too much sharpening may distort and ruin your image.

Once you have a version of your image that you like, go to Image> Mode>CMYK Colour. You do not have to reselect the unchecked channels when converting back to CMYK. The channels will automatically turn back on and the photo will go back colour.

And voila! The finished product. Of course , if you want to keep playing around with colour, saturation and contrast, you can always go back into your image menu, but for best image results, once you are done, save as a TIFF image file.

Happy Photoshopping, Lomographers!Image and screenshots by Alex Rohne

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