#816: How To Create An Effect Not Entirely Unlike A Lomo Camera With Adobe Photoshop CS2
Sunday, September 30, 2007
I have tried to follow a few tutorials for creating a lomo effect on photographs with Photoshop, but I have found all of them to be frustrating. The person writing the tutorial usually knows Photoshop far more extensively than I do, and so their instructions are often vague and/or complete gibberish to a neophyte like myself. I find myself blinking at the computer screen while I repeat the instructions for a fourth attempt, wondering if it is I who am missing steps five through eight every time or if the person who wrote the instructions just assumed I would know how to manipulate thirteen layers without any guidance. You know, because the manipulation of layers is innate knowledge like breathing and chopsticks.So, I thought I would throw my hat into the ring and show you how I have wrangled the lomo effect beast into a passable set of instructions. Here goes.
For the purpose of this tutorial, I have chosen a rather pastoral-looking* photograph of the Palinode. See below.
Part One:
Pick the Rectangular Marquee Tool from the left toolbar.
Choose a number greater than zero for the Feather amount in the top toolbar. I usually pick a number between 80 and 90 pixels. The higher the number, the greater amount of fadeout from the edge of the marquee to the edge of the photograph, so choose a lower number for a more dramatic effect.
Click and drag the rectangular marquee diagonally from one corner to the other to frame the photograph. The feather effect renders the marquee with rounded corners. This will be the area that you will darken in the next step, so choose as narrow or wide an area as you want to be darkened.
Part Two:
Click on Select in the top toolbar, and then click on Inverse in the drop-down menu. This switches your selected area of the photo from inside the marquee to outside the marquee so that you can darken the edges rather than the middle of your photo.
Click on Image in the top toolbar. Click on Adjustments in the drop-down menu, and then click on Levels in the second drop-down menu.
A pop-up box called Levels will appear. Drag the grey arrow under Input Levels to the right to darken the outer edge of your photo. I usually drag it until the center number above it changes from 1.00 to 0.50.
Part Three:
Make sure that you still have the marquee tool selected, and click on your photo to remove the marquee you made previously.
Click on Image in the top toolbar. Click on Adjustments in the drop-down menu, and then click on Curves in the second drop-down menu.
A pop-up box called Curves will appear. Pick one point on the upper part of the diagonal line and drag it up or down and to the left, and pick one point on the lower part of the diagonal line and drag it up or down and to the right. This will create a gentle S-curve. Play around with it until your picture has the colour and contrast quality you want. Be careful not to go too dark, because you will be adding a darker layer in the next step.
Part Four:
Click on Layer in the top toolbar. Click on New in the drop-down menu, and then click on Layer... in the second drop-down menu. Another layer will appear in the Layers box to the right of your photo.
Make sure that you have chosen the colour black. Choose the Paint Bucket Tool in the left toolbar, and click on the photo to completely fill this second layer. The whole photo will go black, but do not be alarmed. You will correct this in the next step.
Part Five:
In the Layers box to the right of the photo, click on the drop-down menu arrow next to Normal, and then click on Overlay in the drop-down menu.
Click on Opacity next to the drop-down menu and change the percentage until you receive your desired effect. I usually pick a percentage of 40 or lower, depending on the photograph. For this photo, I chose 20%, because I like a slightly more subtle effect.
Click on Layer in the top toolbar, and then click on Flatten Image. Your two layers will now merge as one.
.
Part Six:
Click on Image in the top toolbar. Click on Mode in the drop-down menu, and then click on Lab Color in the second drop-down menu.
In the Layers box to the right of the photo, there are three tabs along the top. Click on the Channels tab, and then click on Lightness. This will make it look as though you have made your photo black and white, but do not worry. This is only momentary.
Click on Filter in the top toolbar. Click on Sharpen in the drop-down menu, and then click on Unsharp Mask....
A pop-up box called Unsharp Mask will appear. I usually set Amount between 25 and 50 percent, Radius between 2.5 and 5.0 pixels, and leave Threshold at 0 levels. For this photo, I chose 25%, 2.5 pixels, and 0 levels.
Part Seven:
Click on Image in the top toolbar. Click on Mode in the drop-down menu, and then click on RGB Color in the second drop-down menu.
And you are done! Here is the finished product:
And here they are side by side so that you can see the difference:
I like this effect, because it can be used subtly to create a warming effect as in the photograph of the Palinode above on the right, or it can used more dramatically to create a much more vivid image that pops out in greater relief.
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, you know what to do.
* I hope you will forgive my slight abuse of the word pastoral.
Labels: the how-tos, the photographs
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19 comments:
Well, that's way too technical for me, but I appreciate you taking the time to share. I'm joining you in Mofo Delurking day on Wednesday. I'm delurking in advance.
The photos under part 1, part 2, and part 4 are marked private, so the tutorial is a bit hard to follow.
Thanks. I want to try that now. I'm a lo-fi, toy camera girl, but I can't always find film and I still like to play with photoshop. There's a photographer (I can't remember the name) whose work has an almost opposite look -- cold and gritty rather than warm and glowy, but it's cool and different and totally doable in photoshop.
Paper Napkin, I don't know what's up with Flickr. I had them all marked private, but only some of the images have been disappearing, and not all the same ones at the same time. I've marked them all public now, but it's still the same. It must be a Flickr glitch.
You might also try this script that you can use in Photoshop. it automates all the steps for you
http://www.flickr.com/groups/technique/discuss/34317/ There's lomo and also holga scripts. it leaves your original image untouched and uses layers so you can see how they achieved the affect.
This rocks! Thanks for sharing.
I've been wondering how you got the dynamic colors that are in all of your pictures, and now I know! I bookmarked this post, so the next time I go out shooting, I can play around with this.
You new header is wicked cool, and I love the PS tips, though I use Corel so when I get some time, I'll have to figure this out - but it looks really neat.
I can see them now. I wasn't familiar with the "curves" adjustment. That's cool. If I want to do the lomo effect, I select a new layer, feather and darken around the edge, then mess around with the saturation and lighting effects filter. This is how mine came out Not as good as yours tho
Pagalina, I'll have to give that script you mentioned a try, although I like being able to control every step, so we'll see how much it allows me to do that.
Karen Rani, when I first tried this sort of thing, I followed a Photoshop tutorial, and I was using the GIMP program. The steps generally are translatable to a certain extent, so good luck! Thanks for sending me your go at it, Paper Napkin. It's always nice to know that the time spent writing out instructions isn't for naught.
I am waiting for a new Photoshop to show up in my mailbox, as I've been humping along on a version that's 10 years old, so this is very timely advice! Thank you!
ah you beautiful girl - first i learned what lomo was - sounded like it might be realted to mofo (heh) only to find out that that is sort of the philosphy i use for picture taking. the instructions are simpler to follow than a lot of the tutorials i've tried and i believe i need to capture your attention for an afternoon and have you show me some more of what you know. i have cookies and can probably dig up some ice cream ;)
schmutz... the script provides individual layers for each of the effects/steps so that you can then adjust. Easy peasy! but I can also confess that it took me a long time to stop making my own drop shadows and start using the built in layer affect for them. I'm a little hard-headed.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE photos made this way! And ALWAYS wanted to learn how to do it. So thanks for posting this!!
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