Lomo Effect in Photoshop

We went to the beach yesterday, down at Sandsend, for a bit of fresh air at the end of the day.  Today I thought I'd have a go at applying a kind of lomo effect to one of the photographs I took.  Lomography is a photography movement based around the use of experimental 35mm film cameras, known generally for their high contrast and saturation.  Originating in Russia, Lomo cameras are still in production today and are increasingly popular.

Step 1

Open your desired image in Photoshop.  Not all photos suit this effect, so you'll have to choose wisely - something with good contrast and strong colours should work fine.

Step 2

Open the Curves dialog and adjust the curves slightly to increase contrast by lightening the highlights.  Again, the amount of tinkering done at this stage will vary depending on your photo so feel free to experiment.

Step 3

Next I opened the Noise dialog and added 15% noise to the image.

Step 4

After that, use the 'Create Fill or Adjustment Layer' menu to add a gradient across the image.

Step 5

I made the gradient colour #fc2c2c and angled it across the image at -105 degrees.  After you've applied the layer, change the blend mode for the gradient to 'Lighten'.  You may want to reduce the opacity too.  I left the opacity at 100% to give a good contrast betwee the red on the right and the blue of the sea on the left.

Step 6

I then added a radial gradient from black to transparent across the entire image (on a new layer), from the centre.  I changed the blending mode on the new layer to 'Overlay' and reduced the opacity to 40%.  This gives a bit more depth to the colours and even more contrast in the shadows.

Finished Image

I finished the image by adding Florence's name - this is obviously a personal touch, you can do whatever you like to yours!  You can view the full sized image on my Flickr by clicking here.