Lomography Lomochrome Purple
Yo! What’s up, internet?
Today we’re gonna talk about Lomography Lomochrome Purple. This is a color-negative film that can be shot anywhere from 100-400 ISO. It’s available in 35mm, 120, and 110. It’s often compared to some older infrared films because of the color shifts, but it can be developed in standard C-41 chemicals.
So the reason you’re here! You wanna learn how this film turns the greens into purples, the yellows into pinks, and the blues into green or teals…BUTTTTTT! I can’t tell you that…because I don't want to get into emulsions, photon reactions, and silver halide crystals. SO! I'm just going to tell you how I see it reacts with light in the scene how the exposure affects the film.
I’m going to take you along on three shoots that were filmed at three different times of the day. I wanted to see how the film reacts to low light at sunset, direct light at midday, and then classic golden hour. Every session was rated at 400 ISO and I used the camera's internal meter for exposures.
The first shoot we will start with is a sunrise shoot on the bay in Pensacola, Florida. We had done some work on digital earlier that morning and I was really inspired by how the sun was shining through the live oaks onto the sand and greenery. So on our way out, I decided to throw in a roll of lomo purple and see what we could get.
Onto the sunset roll! In the ‘behind the scenes’ footage, you can see why we ran late to golden hour. Danika and I found a big puddle behind a laundromat SLASH car wash…I mean, what’s more analog photography than that? The second location was this beautiful yard in my neighborhood full of azaleas and oaks, but sadly there just wasn't enough sunlight cutting through to activate the film. Even the overexposed parts of the photo that did not receive direct sunlight were desaturated and muddy. You can see the beautiful golden hour on the tops of the trees, but the tones overall were kind of muted and dull.
For the last roll I wanted to shoot as close to midday as possible, so Manah and I went out to this little beach around 3-4PM. There were no trees or shade and the sand was throwing even more of the suns reflection back at us. IT WAS BRIGHT! You’ll see that this is the most vivid and shifted roll of the three. You can see the brightest pinks and teals the film is known for, and while the direct sunlight helps the luminance of the film, it also adds to the contrast. So that dark shadows do get muddy if you try to adjust them in lightroom.
