Years ago I did a lomography effect tutorial using Photoshop and it’s time for an updated, latest and greatest lomography style tutorial. To make things even better, we’ll attack this effect using a single Adjustment Layer in Photoshop. This will give us maximum flexibility as we move forward with our image.
Follow along with this tutorial using this exact stock photography from Pexels.
1. All About The Curves
We need to drop a Curves Adjustment layer onto our image by going Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Curves. As you can see in the screenshot, I dragged a reversed “S” curve onto my curve to cut down the contrast of the image a bit. TIP: You can dramatically alter your lomo effect by dragging a normal “S” curve at this step instead of what I did. This will pump some serious contrast into your image.
2. Red Channel
Choose “Red” from the channels drop down menu in the Curves dialog box and then drag a point upward near the middle of the Red channel curve. See my screenshot for exactly where I dragged the point to introduce more red into the image.
3. Green Channel
Next, choose “Green” from the channels drop down menu and, just as I have in my screenshot, drag in two points and create a tight “S” curve near the middle of the curve graph line. This will pull green out of the shadows area, effectively dumping magenta into the shadows and also adding green to the highlight areas of the image.
4. Blue Channel
Lastly, choose “Blue” from the channels drop down menu and drag in two points to create an “S” curve just as I have in my screenshot. This will add lots of blue to the shadows and dump yellow into the highlights (yellow is the opposite of blue.)
That’s it! A simple, instantaneous lomo effect using a single adjustment layer and Photoshop CC.
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