Manila Freelancer

Achieving a Lomo effect is simpler – and more affordable – than you think. You won’t even need to purchase a Lomo camera, real or otherwise.

All you need to do is take photos using your digital camera, learn how to use Photoshop and tweak away!

Tips and Tricks for Getting a Lomo Effect for Your Photographs – There are many ways to get a Lomo effect for your digital photos. While you’ll find many tips and tricks online, you should also try experimenting once in a while until you come up with your own – and no doubt best – combination for achieving a Lomo effect.

Start by making a vignette for your photo. Once you’ve done that, here are some Photoshop effects you can use to make your photographs look Lomo.

Contrast and Saturation in Color – Have you never wondered why photos produced by film cameras appear the way they are? Have you never wondered why some of them come out extremely vivid, other comes out blurry, while those taken by Lomo cameras come out “lomofied”?

All these have to do with the chemical processing they undergo. Digital photos may not have that particular advantage, but digital photos can always make do with adjusting levels of saturation and contrast in color.

Flat versus Sharp – Ordinarily, people use Photoshop to make their photos look sharper. But if you want a Lomo effect for your photos, you’ll need to do the opposite and try flattening your photo instead. You can do this by clicking on Layers in the toolbar then selecting Merge Layers. If you’re a Mac user, you can simply press Shift, Control, and “E” at the same time.

Curve with an S – We’re still not done with layers. Go for curves this time and create a slanted shape of S with your photo.

Paint with Black – Pull out the paint bucket from the toolbar on your left and click on solid black. Use it to fill a new layer.

Blend – Go to Blend. Choose Hue among the various modes, making sure that you also set the level of opacity to forty percent.

Flatten then Sharpen – Be just a bit more patient because we’re almost there. See your finished product? Click on Merge Layers to flatten the image once more. Afterwards, look for the sharp mask tool. You’ll see various lightness techniques there; it’s up to you to choose which technique best suits your photo. Just remember to aim for darkening pertinent areas and increasing contrast.

All done? Then the last thing you have to do is save your work in jpeg format and voila! You’ve got yourself a Lomo-fied photo!