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Lomography's Lomochrome Metropolis: A Review

Street Photography in London

By Sophia CareyPublished 2 years ago 4 min read
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I've expressed previously that I don't tend to be very adventurous in my choice of film stock. I like to work with what I know, what I think I can control, and I don't tend to stray too far from that. That being said, every time I do push myself to explore new techniques, film stocks and ideas that are beyond the realm of what I'm comfortable with, I grow more fond of the experience.

After trying out Lomography's LomoChrome Purple film stock a few months ago, the first novelty film stock I ever tried my hand at, the next step for me was to look into other specialist film stocks.

Introducing Lomography's LomoChrome Metropolis.

I'd heard of Metropolis before. In fact, I'd seen it before. The desaturated, washed-out film stock, resembling something of the aesthetic of bleach bypass techniques. Needless to say, it hadn't ever caught my eye or enticed me to try it.

My work usually relies a lot on colour, which is why I seldom shoot on black and white film, and so the idea of a desaturated film stock hadn't seemed as though it would lend itself to my style of shooting.

But, since LomoChrome Metropolis is described as being "built for exploring the urban jungle in all of its grit and beauty", I thought that there was no better city to try out this specialist stock than in London.

LomoChrome Metropolis uses a unique chemical formula to Lomography in which is de-saturates the colours. It has a variable ISO, meaning that it can be shot at any ISO from 100 through to 400. For the purpose of this shoot/experiment, I shot a roll of 120 film at ISO 400, although the film is also available in 110 and 35mm formats too.

After shooting the roll on my journey from Croydon to the film lab, EyeCulture, in Bethnal Green, my initial observations based on the 16 frames that I got back were that the colours resembled what I'd imagine an image would like if you crossed a full-colour image with a sepia image. Not completely desaturated, but with a heavy overlay of brown and orange tones.

The brown shadows and warm tones were not something that I had expected to see, having seen most of the examples of LomoChrome Metropolis appear on the colder side of the colour spectrum. Whether this was down to the way I stored the film, the lighting conditions in which I shot the roll (it was heavily overcast) or the way the lab I used had developed and scanned the film, I'm not sure, but it was a pleasant surprise.

A similar pleasant surprise was how much the warmer colours (in particular the reds) popped within the image. In the photos I took of the fruit stand, the fruit looks really vibrant and cuts through the sepia vibe vividly.

Because of this, I think that this film stock is most effective when there are colours in frame. For example, in this photo (above) where the palette is all quite similar and neutral, the colours all mix into each other (especially because the photo is a little underexposed). If you compare this to the images I took with the colours of the fruit, you can see the stark difference.

Comparing this film stock to another underexposed shot (above), you can see how the red of the traffic light pops even in the shadows/part of the image which is least exposed.

I was also impressed by the dynamic range of this film stock and how it exposed the indoor and outdoor elements of this scene (above). The lighting was so starkly different that I'm surprised there's still so much detail in the shadows and highlights respectively.

For me, I think I’ll continue using this stock for street photography and as an everyday kind of stock. I'd like to trial it on 35mm to see how it differs from 120, and also maybe in different lighting conditions, such as on a bright, sunny day. Whether or not I'll try it for portraits, I'm not sure yet, as I'm not sure how accurately skin tones will be captured, but it might be worth a try in the future.

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About the Creator

Sophia Carey

Photographer and designer from London, living in Manchester.

sophiacarey.co.uk

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