In the world of smartphone photography we’re lucky enough to see a particular style of photo or a photography effect and think ‘there’s an app for that’ but in many instances there’s something to be said for the old-fashioned way of doing things and with this in mind, today we’re taking a little look at lomography and how to incorporate it into your own unique canvas prints. 

The history of lomography

The lomography photo movement started with students. In 1991 a group of Viennese students found a Russian Lomo camera while on a trip. They were so impressed by the distinctive images it produced, they set about bringing the camera to a global market. Following the founding of the international Lomography Society in 1992 a series of exhibitions took place, highlighting not only the colourful blurry images of the camera but also the movement’s mantra: “Don’t think, just shoot”. Alongside this admirable attitude to photography go the ten golden rules lomographers are supposed to live by, which you can find here.

Making your digital images mimic lomography

Lomography is a purely analogue format but there are ways to mimic the look and feel of lomography if you don’t own a Lomo camera. Firstly, you’ll want to read the ten golden rules so you can bear in mind the essence of lomography while you shoot. Next, follow these hints and tips to ensure your images look a little lomo too!

You can edit your photos in Photoshop to look a little more lomo, the areas you’ll need to start by creating a vignette and then play with the colours and saturation levels to imitate the cross-processing technique lomographers frequently use. You want a strong contrast of bright and dark colours. Of course, there’s always a quick way of doing things and the retro camera app includes the option to add your own lomo filter to photos, which is just a little bit less time consuming and very handy if you don’t happen to own Photoshop!

Turning your lomography shots into canvas prints

If you own a real lomo camera you can still create your own customised canvas prints – just scan and save your photos before uploading to our site.  You can choose different shapes and sizes to suit the original image or build your own split canvas to show off a series of shots. If you have a lomo app on your camera or camera phone you can choose to upload straight from your device or from Facebook or Instagram. So, you can give your lomography a new lease of life whether you’re shooting analogue or digital!