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How to Quickly Emulate a Lomo Photo Effect in Photoshop

How to Quickly Emulate a Lomo Photo Effect in Photoshop

Photoshop Tips & Tricks

The Lomo photo effect still is a very popular photographic style for those seeking an unusual sepia-esque effect for their images. This effect is inspired by photographs taken with a camera made in 1984 called "Lomo Kompakt Automat". The photos produced by the Lomo Kompakt Automat (Lomo LC-A) use a color reproduction that's not exactly "true-to-life". But we don't need this type of camera to make this effect anymore, because we can easily emulate it in Photoshop. There are of course many different ways to achieve this effect, and today I'll show you a very simple method to stylize your images with a Lomo effect in less than 5 minutes.​

But before we begin, and if you want to follow this tutorial exactly as described, please download the following free image from Pixabay: Download.

Step 1

Open your image in Photoshop.

Step 2

Click on the padlock icon of the Background Layer to unlock it.

Step 3

Go to Layer > Smart Objects > Convert to Smart Object.

Step 4

Go to Image > Adjustments > Curves.

Step 5

Select the bottom left anchor point of the RGB curve and set the Input value to 30 and the Output value to 30.

Step 6

Click once over the curve to add a new anchor point and set the Input value to 100 and the Output value to 105.

Step 7

Select the Red channel from the dropdown menu. Select the bottom left anchor point of the Red curve and set the Output value to 25.

Step 8

Now, select the Green channel from the dropdown menu. Select the bottom left anchor point of the Green curve and set the Output value to 5.

Step 9

Select the Blue channel from the dropdown menu. Select the bottom left anchor point of the Blue curve and set the Input value to 80 and the Output value to 40. Click Ok.

Step 10

With the base effect already made, click on the "Create new fill or adjustment layer" icon in the Layers Panel and from the dropdown menu select "Gradient".

Step 11

Be sure to have the "Foreground to Transparent" gradient selected, apply the following settings and click Ok.

Step 12

Lastly, set the gradient layer mode to Linear Burn and bring down the opacity to about 30%.

Some Final Notes

As we converted the initial image to a Smart Object, now you can simply double click on the image layer thumbnail, replace the picture of the new opened document with another one, save the smart object file and have the exact same effect applied to your new image in the original file.


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