Having seen a few photos on social media of scenes photographed on Lomochrome Purple 35mm film, I was very keen to give it a whirl, but there was one caveat … it would have to wait until spring !
Film Context
Lomography released this film stock back in 2013 and by all accounts improved upon its grain structure & colour profile in 2017.
At it’s heart, LomoChrome Purple is an homage to Kodak AeroChrome – an infra-red film, which provides those eye-catching and unique landscape images with deep skies & bright foliage.
This film stock is unusual in that it’s rated between 100-400 ISO however, after more digging around I discovered that setting your camera to ISO 400 will yield the punchiest purples and cyans.
Film Character
As this film stock is meant to resemble infra-red photography, you can expect the following colour shifts:
- Green –> Purple
- Blue –> Cyan
- Yellow –> Pink
The grain is surprisingly fine-medium and the exposure latitude is excellent. As mentioned, the recommendation to rate the film at ISO 400 was spot-on, as I was extremely pleased with the scene rendering.
Trees
This is the first subject area I was pretty excited to explore, and see whether LomoChrome Purple could deliver the goods … and wow, it sure did!
The bright lime-green new shoots of spring take on these beautiful vibrant pink-purple hues, while the lush undergrowth is transformed to blue-purples.
When I got my photos back from printpoint in Limerick I was so impressed, what I was seeing on the internet & social media was true, and not some post-editing in Photoshop of what may have been more insipid colour rendering. I’m impressed 🤩
Skies
This is the next subject area I wanted to see how LomoChrome Purple behaved – luckily I had a little break from the rain and was able to get grab a few striking shots with my Canon 300V.
The deep cerulean blue skies over Kilkenny transformed into gorgeous cyan tones, my only wish looking back now is that I had weather & clouds that could have accommodated wide panoramic views … maybe next time.
Vegetation
I genuinely got such a shock when I saw the output of my daisies, cow-parsley, rapeseed and bluebells … WOW!
My 5 months of patient waiting, planning and hoping paid off … the film stock devoured those vibrant lush new colours of spring and delivered mind-bending alterations.
BTW: the 40mm pancake lens on my Canon EOS 300V helped contribute to some of that magic, it’s such an under-rated lens.
Final Thoughts
You’ve probably gathered by the tone of this blog that I’m really enjoyed the experience and unique images that LomoChrome Purple created, without sacrificing image quality.
However, make no mistake, it’s also one of those film stocks that you need to be careful not to overuse otherwise the novelty will wear off quickly.
I hope this review helps and until my next blog post, keep shooting film ! Paul
