Shooting LomoChrome Film at Night with Nathan Trimbach

We recently saw Nathan Trimbach's comparative YouTube series shooting LomoChrome Films at Night, and were amazed to see how gorgeous our color-shifting film stocks look when they're shining in the late hours.

Having experimented with Lomography Redscale and LomoChrome Purple, Turquoise, and Metropolis, the Minnesota-based photographer is joining us here to give us a thorough rundown of his experience shooting these film stocks at night, including his side-by-side comparisons, personal takeaways, and shooting tips.

The following words are by Nathan Trimbach.

I have always loved night photography and ever since I got back into film photography around six years ago, I’ve had a lot of fun trying all kinds of analogue film stocks at night. Some of my favorite shots have been with the creative effect films of LomoChrome Metropolis, Purple, Turquoise and Redscale.

In this article I will share some comparisons, characteristics and other learnings I’ve had shooting these fun and unique films at night.

LomoChrome Metropolis

LomoChrome Metropolis is a film that tends to desaturate most colors except for reds, yellows and oranges. I feel like many of the images I took gave the cityscapes a Gotham-like look.

But my favorite time shooting Metropolis was a trip to Las Vegas on Fremont Ave. The red and yellow lights along the classic Vegas neon signs really accentuated the look and feel of an old western Vegas, feeling like a strange combination of classic and modern.

Overall, I liked how Metropolis will accentuate certain colors and lights. If there are a lot of reds and yellows in the scene, it is a great one to try.

LomoChrome Purple

I’ve always liked LomoChrome Purple in the daytime to give an exciting, psychedelic look. Shooting green trees, grass, and flowers to see how all the colors will change makes me feel like a kid waiting to open a gift.

At night, neon signs would have this beautiful mix of violets, pinks and magentas.

I also noticed a fair amount of teals and turquoise lights. This can come from certain lights or the atmosphere from the night sky.

Overall, LomoChrome Purple is a very fun film to shoot at night and I really like how all the lights have a strong neon magenta look to them.

LomoChrome Turquoise

LomoChrome Turquoise is one of the most unique and surreal film stocks I’ve shot. There’s something about this film that makes me think that I’ve landed on another planet.

One of the first things you’ll notice is that red lights turn into a deep blue color. Red tail lights on cars turn into long blue streaks.

I especially liked how Turquoise looks with Christmas / holiday lights. Bright white lights turn into a cool teal or turquoise.

Overall, my favorite thing about LomoChrome Turquoise is how wildly different the colors will turn out.

Lomography Redscale

Lomography Redscale is one of my favorite films to shoot during the day to get a very post-apocalyptic look. At night, that look is dialed up by 10.

Redscale is somewhat similar to Metropolis in the way that colors are shown (red, orange, yellow spectrum), but it feels much stronger, brighter and more intense.

Overall this film is intense but exciting to see how it turns out in different scenes: from deep reds to burnt yellows, Redscale can turn the scene into a sinister neo-noir.

Comparisons

One of the first things I do when shooting a new film at night is to try to find a neutral scene so I can see how it renders the colors in low light settings.

This scene shows two different kinds of lights and how each film renders them. Metropolis has a yellow and green look to the street lights. Purple has a very white, magenta look to the street lights. Turquoise goes very teal and green for the street lights whereas Redscale is mostly red and orange.

Solid white lights have different colors for each one also. Metropolis turned yellow, Purple turned light pink, Turquoise turned light blue and Redscale turned blood red.

I found it interesting how light sources rendered the light on each film as well as the spill light from the midtones and shadows.

Overall it was very interesting to see how shooting the same subject handled each of the four different film stocks. I can’t wait to shoot more of it.

Shooting Tips

I would recommend shooting at the lower end of the ISO range. LomoChrome Purple’s ISO range is 100-400, so for night shooting I would set my ISO to either 100 or 50 to ensure there was enough light for the scene.

I highly recommend using a tripod, light meter, and cable release or self timer. You will get much more light and detail going that route.

Because there’s no technical data sheets, you might have to experiment with some trial and error or bracketing. Overall I recommend playing around and experiencing the fun and excitement you get from seeing such wildly different colors and effects!

Thank you Nathan for sharing your words and photos with us! If you'd like to see more of his work, you can check him out on Instagram and YouTube.

He has also featured each of these nighttime shoots in their own respective YouTube videos, check them out here: Metropolis, Purple, Turquoise, Redscale

written by alexa_alexiades on 2024-06-30 #gear #in-depth