LOMO! - part 2

Following on from my previous post - I had to produce something to fulfill my own theme criteria. Being something of a stickler for composition and taking the time to examine the scene that I was photographing the Lomo philosophy was quite difficult to embrace. What is the lomo philosophy? Lomo has 10 rules that are the accepted as guidelines for Lomographers. These are those rules:

1. Take your Lomo everywhere you go

This I always do along with an extra roll of film.

2. Use it anytime - day and night

3. Lomography is not an interference with your life but a part of it

It will soon feel natural to take Lomographs of everything.

4. Get as close as possible to the objects of you lomographic desire

I still don't get this right half the time.

5. Don't think

Once you start thinking about composition, the unexpected qualities start to go.

6. Be fast

As fast as you can take you camera from your pocket. For instant reaction, use the supplied wrist strap.

7. You don't have to know beforehand what is on your film

8. Nor afterwards

You will figure it out eventually.

9. Try the shot from the hip

Or from the ground.

10. Don't worry about (golden) rules

Be unique and find your own way.

In all honesty I did actually stick to the "Don't think, just shoot" ideal, at least initially, but then my desire for an interesting photo kind of took over. Ironically tho it ended up being two of the shots that really were shot from the hip that I decided I liked the most.

These are those two shots - both of the Centre Point building in London


So the processing involved in these two shots is the following:

In Adobe lightroom:
- Up the 'temperature' or warmpth of the photo
- Boost the saturation
- Up the contrast and blacks
- Tweek the yellow and green channels

In Adobe Photoshop
- A very slight sharpen pass (this is a legacy of the D80 - I don't use any camera processing and only shoot in raw)
- Tweek the exposure a little more as with the contrast and saturation to suit.
- A tiny little bit of false vignetting.

I have entered the first of the two into the competition so we'll see how we go - I don't expect to win this one as some of the other entries are far superior to mine. However it has been a brilliant learning experience and I personally think it was broadened my options a little when it comes to styles. I will post the result on here.

The forum and the entries can be found here: OCuK Photography Forum