Lomography: The Digital Photo Sceptics Strike Back [digital copies,upload,process analogue]

Telegraph.co.uk ^ | 7:20AM BST 20 Aug 2011 | Shane Richmond, Head of Technology

[fight_truth_decay]

As digital photography grows, an analogue company, Lomography, is growing interest in its range of striking and unusual cameras.

When a pair of Austrian students found an old Russian camera, the Lomo Kompakt Automat, in the early 1990s, they were surprised and delighted by the unpredictable images it produced.

The saturated colours and slightly blurry photos had a distinctive look. The pair travelled to Saint Petersberg in Russia to sign a worldwide distribution deal with the manufacturer.

The Lomography movement grew quickly, with users all over the world returning to analogue ways just as digital photography was growing in popularity. They followed the '10 Golden Rules' established by the company's founders, including 'try a shot from the hip' and 'don't think'.

Lomography fans make digital copies of their photos, which they upload to the internet and share - the website at the time of writing says that more than 7,000 photos have been uploaded in the last hour - but the process is determinedly analogue. Photographers seek out expired film or use slide film to exaggerate the effects produced by the camera.

[warsaw44]

I mostly just make my own actions for photoshop.

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wow...well, I can hope to be that good some day. My restoration skills have come a long, long way but I am still a rank novice compared to some folks.

[FLAMING DEATH]

I have a bunch of old film cameras that I shoot with on a semi-regular basis.

Mamiya 1000 TL
Praktica MTL-5
Rolliecord something or other (forget the model)
Nikon FM2 N
Minolta XG-1
Petra 7S
Yashica Zoom Image 38-90
Minolta Freedom Dual 60
Canon AE-1 Program
DeJur Rangefinder

Probably more. I buy one every time I find it.

I’ve thought about getting a FED 50 or a Lomo or something, but I don’t shoot enough with film to justify buying another camera.

I like the look of film, and it’s fun to shoot on film, but for most of my day-to-day photography, I can approximate it closely enough in a photo editor that it is not worth it to go to the extra trouble. Most people can’t tell the difference, anyway.

[FLAMING DEATH]

Cool, but I’ve never seen a camera that makes a rectangular vignette!

I think that’s the downfall of lots of these types of filters...they don’t take into account that the “rectangle” of the film frame has no effect on the light entering it.

[cripplecreek]

Online tutorials.

I started out with some online courses through the community college but found that I actually learned more from free tutorials on line.

One of the sites I keep handy for when I need to try something new.

http://www.photoshopmosaic.com/

[cripplecreek]

That’s photoshop so I could have made the vignette star shaped or any other shape if I wanted.

[M1903A1]

Wow. A picture that says so much about the subject.

I’ve always said that you could hand a master photographer an old Kodak box camera and they’d still produce something great.

[warsaw44]

Thanks CC.
Is using photoshop your profession? editing work, restoration etc.

[lentulusgracchus]

I have an old Kodak Instamatic 44 (ca. 1969) plastic tourist-issue brownie-type camera. It shoots C-126 film (they used to have Ektachrome and Kodacolor, as well as Kodachrome and various pan films in that size) and I still have two exposed cassettes that I'd like to have developed somewhere. I even have a cassette, unexposed, still in foil in the refrigerator. I haven't found anyone in Houston who can help me. I think the last time I had some of those cassettes developed was about 2002. Can someone suggest somewhere to try?

[cripplecreek]

I make a few bucks in photography and make a few bucks selling photoshop artwork online and off.

I’m not gonna get rich in this economy.

[FLAMING DEATH]

http://www.dwaynesphoto.com/newsite2006/disc-126-film.html

I googled and that was the first that came up. You might be able to find others.

“Because it is 35mm wide and is developed in industry-standard C-41 process chemistry, processing of currently available 126 films is readily available, as long as the photofinisher knows that it is standard, 35mm, C-41 film. Many photofinishers are not aware of this, so it is important to inform them. Printing the photos can present problems, because modern film processing equipment often cannot handle the square format of 126 film. There are specialist photographic suppliers who can correctly process and print 126 film. Many standard flatbed scanners that have a light source for scanning films can be used to scan 126 negatives. All that is required is a simple black mask, which can easily be made with black paper.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/126_film

[DTA]

>>>Lomo cameras were crappy even by Soviet standards.<<<<

this lomo is reverse engineered Cosina. not bad at all. more reliable than Olympus XA1.

[rabidralph]

I was looking at some photos I scanned into my computer and was awed by the density of the film images versus what I normally shoot digitally.

[wally_bert]

Similar story but have never sold a thing online. My smugmug and shutterstock galleries have helped me get jobs and make a little money in the stock game.

[Army Air Corps]

Given a choice between a Cosina and a Soviet knockoff thereof, I’d take the Cosina.

[lentulusgracchus]

Thanks much for the links! Appreciate it.

[Army Air Corps]

Thanks for posting that link!

[Uncle Miltie]

Or, you could use a $50 pre-war Rolleiflex (1938 Automat, Zeiss Jena Tessar, 3.5) and actually think about your image:

Nice, France, Outdoor Market. Fuji Velvia 50.

[Uncle Miltie]

For my film photography, get ready for color explosions! Almost exclusively Fuji Velvia 50, scanned well:

http://photo.net/photodb/member-photos?user_id=3774365

[Lexinom]

Me too, bro!

[Lexinom]

Very cool. And close, I suppose! One thing digitals will never be effective at, however (at least with conventional electronics) is astrophotography involving exposures of several minutes or hours.