I recently published an article about a new set of actions that I have created – the Lomo effect action set and I have had a bunch of emails sent through to me asking for a tutorial, showing step by step how to achieve it, so here it is

Difficulty: Basic – Intermediate

Completion time: 1/2 to 1 hour

Tools: Adobe PhotoshopCS +

Resources

Your image

or

The stock image used for this tutorial is from TwiggXstock and can be found here.

What you’ll be creating

Note: For Mac users, the correspondent keys for CTRL and ALT are CMD and OPTION.

STEP 1

Open the image that you want to create the lomo effect in photoshop and apply a brightness/contrast adjustment layer.

The settings that I used:

Brightness – 10

Contrast – 10

STEP 2

Then apply the following settings to a levels  adjustment layer.

The settings that I used:

Red Channel – shadow input level -39 and highlight input level – 223

Green Channel – shadow input level -39 and highlight input level – 223

STEP 3

Create a new blank layer and fill it with white, setting the blend mode of the layer to multiply. Then go to Filter>Distort>Lens Correction and apply the following setting: Lens Correction : -100. Leave all the other settings at the default.

STEP 4

Press crtl-shift-alt-E to create a merged copy of what you are working on. Go to Filters>Blur> Gaussian Blur.

The setting that I used:

Radius – 10px.

Optional

If you’re  so inclined you can also add a light leak to your image by using a gradient adjustment layer.

STEP 1

Apply a gradient adjustment layer to the top of all of your layers.

The colour I have used here is: #ff6e02

To create your own gradient open up the  gradient editor and place three different stops along the bottom like the screenshot:

1. location 0%
2. location  8%
3. location 100%

Then make sure that you have 4 opacity stops at the top.

1. location 0% with opacity 0%
2. location 8% with opacity 100%
3. location 20% with opacity 0%
4. location 100% with opacity 100%

You can also change the colour of the light leak or the intensity by moving the stops around.

STEP 2

Change the blend mode of the adjustment layer to pin light and the opacity to 90% and you’re done!

You can also download the lomo action set, which contains 8 different lomo effects and 3 light leak effects.

Lomo Effect (29.7 KiB)

And preview the 8 different effects in this post: Lomo Action Set

Here’s a couple of examples of the actions in action

Stock Image:  ~hatestock

Stock Image : ~Alraunie-stock

One thing that I miss so much is film photography. Its getting harder and harder to obtain film and to process it, but this isn’t a rant about the cost of processing film  this is about how to recreate the lomo effect!

Lomography emphasizes casual, snapshot photography. Accidents such as over-saturated colors, lens artifacts, and exposure defects are rehabilitated to produce swirly, abstract effects – a trait emphasized by practitioners. Others use the technique to document everyday life, because the small camera size and ability to shoot in low light encourages candid photography, photo reportage and photo vérité.

~ http://www.lomophoto.com/

I have created a set of actions to recreate this kind of look.

There are 8 different lomo actions included in the set, which effects you can see above.

I have also included 3 different light leak effects, they are shown here one their own.

Or you can mix the light leaks and the lomo effect together!

The image on the left is Lomo Action 4 + Add Small Light Leak Action.

The image on the right is Lomo Action 8 + Small Light Leak Action + Another Light Leak Action.

The stock image is from TwiggXstock and can be found here.

Lomo Effect (29.7 KiB)

In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to achieve the Quick  Antique Colouring effect, that you can find in my latest group of actions.

1.  If you have retouched the image and made density corrections, press crtl-shift-alt-E to make a merged copy of the image.

If you are working from the original image, press crtl-J. Name this layer Softlight.

2. Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and apply with a radius between 5 px – 10px .

3. Change the blend mode of the Softlight layer to Softlight.

4. Open the Layer Style Palette and move the Blend If black sliders to 25, then hold alt to split them and move the other slider to 100.

5. Apply a Channel Mixer adjustment layer.

6. Move the Channel Mixer adjustment layer to underneath the Softlight layer.

Here’s the final image and two other variations on the same effect:

The first version is as described in the tutorial above. The second image has the dress masked out on the Channel Mixer adjustment layer. The third image has the skin masked out on the Channel Mixer layer, then a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer is clipped in to the softlight layer, with the saturation set at -100, with everything bar the skin masked out.

Here you can download the action on its own:

Quick Antique Colouring Action (3.8 KiB)

Or you can download the whole set here: AllyKatDesign Actions

In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to achieve the High Saturation effect, that you can find in my latest group of actions.

1.  If you have retouched the image and made density corrections, press crtl-shift-alt-E to make a merged copy of the image.

If you are working from the original image, press crtl-J. Name this layer Overlay.

2. Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and apply with a radius between 5 px – 10px .

3. Change the blend mode of the Overlay layer to Overlay.

4. Open the Layer Style Palette and move the Blend If black sliders to 25, then hold alt to split them and move the other slider to 100.

5. Apply a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and lower the saturation to -50.

6. Clip the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to the Overlay layer.

Here’s the final image:

Here you can download the action on its own:

Saturated Glow Action (3.4 KiB)

Or you can download the whole set here: AllyKatDesign Actions

In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to achieve the Orton effect, that you can find in my latest group of actions.

1.  If you have retouched the image and made density corrections, press crtl-shift-alt-E to make a merged copy of the image.

If you are working from the original image, press crtl-J. Name this layer Screen and change the blend mode of this layer to Screen.

2. Press crtl-shift-alt-E to make a merged copy, name this layer Multiply and change the blend mode to Multiply.

3. Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and apply with a radius of 3 px.

Here’s the final image:

Here you can download the action on its own:

Orton Effect Action (2.9 KiB)

Or you can download the whole set here: AllyKatDesign Actions

In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to achieve the Bleach Bypass effect, that you can find in my latest group of actions.

1.  If you have retouched the image and made density corrections, press crtl-shift-alt-E to make a merged copy of the image.

If you are working from the original image, press crtl-J. Change the blend mode of this layer to Multipy.

2. Add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and lower the saturation to -45.

3. Add a levels adjustment layer and change the property of the white slider to 200.

4. Add a curves adjustment layer and pull the curve up in the middle to lighten the image..

Here’s the final image:

Here you can download the action on its own:

Bleach Bypass Action (3.9 KiB)

Or you can download the whole set here: AllyKatDesign Actions

In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to achieve the Holga effect, that you can find in my latest group of actions.

1.  If you have retouched the image and made density corrections, press crtl-shift-alt-E to make a merged copy of the image.

If you are working from the original image, press crtl-J.

2. Now go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Apply the filter with a 5px radius.

3. Add a layer mask and apply a Radial Gradient with white set as your foreground colour.

I usually apply this over a face in the photo. If there are no people then just apply it in a random place on the image.

4. Now press crtl-shift-alt-E to create a new merged copy of all the layers. Go to the Layer Style palette and tick Gradient Overlay. Use the following settings:

Blend mode to Multiply
Opacity:100%
Reverse ticked
Style: Radial
Angle 90
Scale 100%

4. Create Solid Color Fill adjustment layer. Use black as the color and set the blend mode to colour and the opacity to 15%.

5. Create another adjustment layer on top of the color fill layer, this time the photo filter. Use Warming Filter (81), with the density set at 55%. Make sure the preserve luminosity box is ticked.

By using adjustment layers and layer styles, you can go through your layers and adjust the effect to suit the image that you are working with.

Here’s the final image:

Here you can download the action on its own:

Holga Effect Action (7.9 KiB)

Or you can download the whole set here: AllyKatDesign Actions

In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to achieve the High Contrast effect, that you can find in my latest group of actions.

1.  If you have retouched the image and made density corrections, press crtl-shift-alt-E to make a merged copy of the image, then press crtl-J to create another copy.

If you are working from the original image, press crtl-J twice.

Name the first copied layer Black & White and the second Soft Light.

2. Turn off the Soft Light layer. Select the layer Black & White and press crtl-shift-U to desaturate it. Add a layer mask and mask out the eyes.

3. Turn on the Soft Light layer, change the blend mode to soft light. Add a layer mask and mask out the eyes again.

4. Now press crtl-shift-alt-E to create a new merged copy of all the layers. Name this layer Overlay and change the blend mode to overlay with 50% opacity. Again add a layer mask and mask out the eyes.

5. Press crtl-shift-alt-E to create a new merged copy of all the layers. Name this layer Noise and now go to  Filter>Noise>Add Noise. Apply the Add Noise filter with the following settings:

Amount: 4%
Distribution: Gaussian
Tick the box Monochromatic

Here’s the final image:

Here you can download the action on its own:

High Contrast Effect (7.5 KiB)

Or you can download the whole set here: AllyKatDesign Actions

In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to achieve the Hollywood Highlights effect, that you can find in my latest group of actions.

1.  If you have retouched the image and made density corrections, press crtl-shift-alt-E to make a merged copy of the image. If you are working from the original image, skip this step.

2. Press crtl-alt-tilde (~) to load the highlights in the image.

3. Press crtl-J to duplicate the image and name the layer highlights.

4. Press crtl then click on the new layer to load the selection. Click on the background layer and press crtl-J again. Name this layer Shadows.

5. Change the blend mode of the Highlight layer to screen and the blend mode of Shadows layer to Multiply and you’re done!

You can also adjust the opacity of the shadow and highlight layers to suit the image that you are working on. In the example image, the opacity of both layers is left at 100%. the action also leaves both the layers opacity at 100%.

Here’s the final image:

Here you can download the action on its own:

Hollywood Highlights Action (4.0 KiB)

Or you can download the whole set here: AllyKatDesign Actions

In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to achieve the dream glow effect, that you can find in my latest group of actions.

1. If you are working off the original image, press crt-J to duplicate the layer. If you have retouched the image and made density corrections, press crtl-shift-alt-E to make a merged copy of the image.

2. Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and apply with a radius of approx 10px. This will give the image a nice glow.

3. Change the blend mode to screen.  Then right click on the layer and select Blend options from the flyout menu.

4. Move the black blend if  slider to 100,  press alt to split the slider and move the other half to 255.

5. Press ctrl-J twice to duplicate the layer another two times and your done!

Here’s the final image:

Here you can download the action on its own:

Dream Glow Effect Action (3.0 KiB)

Or you can download the whole set here: AllyKatDesign Actions