Creative Ways: LomoChrome Turquoise Exposed!

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What happens when you take one crazy film guy, some new and interesting Lomography film, and see what it can do? Magic is what happens, and that is why you need to try some of these techniques when shooting the LomoChrome Turquoise yourself!

Hello again to all of you film lovers out there!

Spring has sprung here in the USA, as it has everywhere else in the world. The weather is nice and everything has come to life. And of course, it’s time for another “Creative Ways” post, where I share some of the ways I use my film and gear, to try crazy things and push my photography to its limit. I do this to keep photography and film interesting. And I do it because it is fun to learn and share that with others.

I am really excited about this week’s “Creative Ways.” Our story actually started in October 2014 when Lomography announced the LomoChrome Turquoise XR 100-400 film. LomoChrome Turquoise is the follow-up to one of my favorite films, LomoChrome Purple XR 100-400. So I happily placed my pre-order. Yea!

Before I knew it months had flown by. Then earlier this week, I got an e-mail telling me that my order was finally being shipped. I could hardly contain myself!

I knew when I got that email that I had to dedicate this week’s “Creative Ways” to shooting the LomoChrome Turquoise film like I did when the LomoChrome Purple first came out. I shot it at all sorts of speeds, redscaled, and using the EBS or exposing both sides technique. I wanted to see how the film performed and have some fun doing it.

I did have to use two (and a half) of my precious rolls of LomoChrome Turquoise, but those two rolls I sacrificed will help me understand what we could get at different exposures, shot on both sides and redscaled.

Exposure

The first thing that I did was shoot an assortment of scenes from ISO 25 to 800 from the same vantage point. After developing and hanging it to dry, I realized I had forgotten I was shooting with a manual body. So I shot the same scene six times at the same exposure settings accidentally. Oops, but I had to laugh about it.

This was the first of several problems I had trying to get the photos I wanted for this article. Just goes to show you that Lomography is more than just perfect photos without mistakes. Lomography is everything, including embracing your mistakes and just going with it. So that is what I did here.

Since I still didn’t have a set of shots of one scene with all the ISOs covered, I rolled some more film into a temporary cassette. This time, I shot in my backyard since it was glowing with evening sunlight and there were shadows and green everywhere. Plus, it was close by. So here are shots taken with LomoChrome Turquoise from ISO 25 to 800 in my backyard.

25, 50, 100, 200 and 400 ISO – A bit underexposed

I think my camera’s meter was a bit overwhelmed by the bright sun so it underexposed the shots a bit. But I learned my first trick with it from one of the shots I took: if you expose it enough, it turns super turquoise, and I learned this from the exposed ends.

That blue tint has a counterpart as well, stay tuned!

Since I had already shot all of my film, seeing how much exposure I need to get that super turquoise color tint is going to be one of my next goals.

At this point, I thought I had all the 25-800 shots I needed covered and so I thought I’d just shoot at random ISOs and random subjects to see what I got. These I metered and then adjusted the camera for each shot based on the meter using the same range of ISO settings as before.

Flip It Over

My next task was to flip another roll of LomoChrome Turquoise over and shoot it through the same exposure settings from ISO 25 to 800. With standard film this technique is known as redscale, but in the case of LomoChrome Purple, it was more like pink scale. So I wondered, what colors would the LomoChrome Turquoise produce when redscaled? The answer was surprising.

First off, even ISO 25 was not fast enough to really bring out the magic in LomoChrome Turquoise when shot through the back side of the film. I also learned that the mistakes made earlier were not the last I’d make for this article’s shoot. But I also learned something cool about the film as well thanks to a mystery light leak on many of the shots. If you notice in the shots above, the leak is sometimes golden and sometimes dark red. So I know that when exposed enough, I can get those colors out of this film.

Exposing Both Sides

Always a fun technique, EBS or exposing both sides is literally what it sounds like. First you shoot a normal roll of color film, rewind it, then attach it to a new film cassette and rewind so you can then shoot through the back. Or you can do this from the back first, then the front.

All of these EBS shots were taken by shooting as redscale, running through the exposure range on each side from ISO 25 to 800. And then I flipped the redscale version back and I shot about 8-10 or so frames with my one of my Lomo LC-As set from ISO 25-400 and repeating.

This is where the film really revealed its capabilities. And it reminded me that I had a lot more experimenting to do to learn the best way to get those crazy turquoise blues and the golden yellows and the dark deep reds.

So despite some setbacks, some dirty chemicals, and thanks a little random luck, I have more goals to try when shooting this film.

LomoChrome Turquoise XR 100-400 is as fun and amazing as I had hoped even with my mistakes. It has amazing potential both shot regularly or very heavily overexposed as redscale type films, beyond what you would think you’d get out of it. And that is why I love LomoChrome Purple, redscale in general, and now my new favorite, LomoChrome Turquoise.

I look forward to shooting more of it and seeing your photos too. Remember, the box speed is just there as a guide. Shoot at whatever exposure creates the results that make you happy and that is all that matters.

Cheers,
ams

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6 Comments

lomaugustry · 2015-04-09 18:41
My camera will meter at ASA 6 and 12 I'd like to see it exposed at those settings I usually shoot at 100 but lomo redscale 100 turned out great with more light. I shot the first few exposures (seen here) www.lomography.com/homes/lomaugustry/albums/2056592-redscal… at asa 12 and i'd imagine turquoise would render great results from what i've seen in your leaky shots
alienmeatsack · 2015-04-10 15:10
@lomaugustry Nothing I have goes that low without some Sunny F/16 math in my head. I agree, I think something in the 6-12 ISO range from the back should make the redscale 'reds' pop more. You can see it coming though barely on the hot light spots on the grass in one of the EBS shots. So I know it's there waiting to be unleashed! :D
alienmeatsack · 2015-04-10 22:01
Another roll of EBS is drying. This time, I shot the normal side at 100 and slower (ended up somewhere around 1 ISO), and then flipped it and did the same, starting at 25 ISO and the last shot was around 4 seconds long. I thought I had really pushed it hard. Then when I hung it up to dry, there was a bright yellow spot where the sun had been in one of the shots. So there's still more exposure range there, I just have to keep shooting until I hit it.
antoniocastello · 2015-04-30 16:42
Really nice article!! I just shot my first roll a couple of week ago and haven't had any time to scan yet, I'm looking ofrward to get the best of it, any tips on how to scan?
kimmiechem2 · 2015-05-08 14:07
Great article! I shot mine at 100 on the LC-wide, and a bit underwhelmed by the results. Might have to give it a try again. Thanks.
chilledvondub · 2015-05-19 07:27
@alienmeatsnack So shooting regularly (e.g not double exposed, EBS, redscaled etc) what would you say is the sweet spot for ISO on this film? I bought a single roll from Hong Kong and would like to nail it first time, I tested LomoPurple and found its peak in performance was around 125-160ASA as you pull out some shadow details but you don't blow out the highlights or lose the deep purple dark lowlights.