Lomography, with the introduction of the Lomo LCA camera in the early 1980s, was founded in 1991, and has since gained a massive following worldwide. Photographs taken by the LCA are known for their vibrant, vintage looking, deeply saturated colors and vignette framing.

In this tutorial, we'll show you how to manipulate your images to make them adopt the effects of Lomographs.

Before & After:

Select the image that you want to use. We will be using this image (12mb Print Res) for the tutorial.

Image ID: 4460282 © TONO BALAGUER 123RF.com.



1. First, create a new adjustment layer for Curves (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves). Apply a slight curve (See example below) and click OK. This results in a brighter, more contrasted image.



2. Moving along, we will now cross-process the image (only that we're going to do it digitally). Simply put, cross-processing is the method of processing film in a chemical solution that is meant for another type of film. For this step, create a new adjustment layer and select Curves. We will adjust the curves for all RGB channels. These settings (See example below) are a rough guide, but feel free to experiment to get a desired result. Once you're happy with the outcome, flatten the Image.

3. Now we will add some noise to the image. Duplicate (Ctrl/Cmd+J) the layer and go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise. Give it a setting of 12px.
Set layer blending mode to Soft Light and opacity to 60%. Flatten the image.

4. Next, we will create the famous vignette frame. This step is fairly simple, select the Elliptical Marquee Tool (M), and create an oval shaped selection over the image by dragging the cursor from the top left corner to the bottom right corner. Give the selection a Feather of around 150px (results will vary on different resolutions).


Inverse (Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+I) the selection and create a new adjustment layer for levels. Drag the shadows arrow (extreme left) inwards, and you will see the vignette taking place on the image. When it looks good to you, click OK and flatten the image.


5.Finally, we'll 'season' the image a little. To do this, create a new adjustment layer for Hue/Saturation and select the Colorize option.

Now tweak the settings until you get a sepia outlook, in this case 50 for Hue and 23 for Saturation. Click OK and key in 30% for the layer opacity.

And you're done. Here's the comparison shot.

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