LomoChrome Purple XR: How to Get that Purple

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LomoChrome Purple 400 is Lomography’s answer to the legendary color infrared films Kodak Aerochrome and EIR. Much like its predecessors, it’s technically demanding and full of surprises. Here’s a rough guide to get that purple color you’ve always wanted.

Like many Lomo enthusiasts looking for a different reality, I fell in love with the strange and beautiful world of color infrared (IR) films. Following a lead in the Lomo community, I too signed a petition asking Lomography to bring back the long-extinct Kodak Aerochrome and EIR, and develop a new color IR film.

Originally developed for military aerial surveillance, Aerochrome can highlight foliage in bright red or pink, depending on the filter used. Red is the color of passion, but also danger. Photographers can put a creative spin on such color shift, turning the lawn into a red carpet, backyard into magic kingdom, and jungle into bloody carnage.

The strange and beautiful world of Infrared films

I love black & white IR film for its glowing Wood Effect and jet black sky. I love Aerochrome when playing with color symbolism and to accentuate the outlines of leaves. Needless to say, the Purple newcomer has some big shoes to fill and a lot of high expectations to meet.

Having played around with a few rolls of Aerochrome before, I knew IR photography is very technical and doesn’t necessarily mix well with the “Don’t think, just shoot” crowd. If *LomoChrome Purple* is anything like its sensitive and unpredictable predecessors, be prepared to bracket like crazy! The wavelengths of visible light and IR are different, so much so that old lenses used to have a red dot for IR focusing. So I half-expected focusing issues too.

On the upside, this new Purple film doesn’t require filtering to block out the visible spectrum nor does it need refrigeration or loading/unloading in complete darkness. All these tell me that Purple XR probably sees both visible and IR light. The first batch of LomoChrome Purple finally arrived in the Summer of 2013. Here are the results of my test roll, all shot with an old Canon EOS SLR.

Yellow is missing on fabrics

A New Color Palette

To see what colors show up in this Purple film, I photographed a rainbow umbrella. Noticeably, yellow is absent, and without this primary color, there can be no orange (yellow + red) or grass green (yellow + blue).

Green turns to purple and even blue
Yellow turns to pink
Orange turns pinkish
Red turns to a hint of Brown
Blue turns to cyan

The lack of yellow can also be seen on this misty two-tone rainbow. What used to be seven colors is now magenta plus cyan. But don’t worry, yellow does show up occasionally (on pink flowers).

Two-tone rainbow

Unpredictable, Darker, More Contrast

By now, you should also have noticed that:

  • Not all green plants will turn purple, it’s all trial and error. Which also means more color variation!
  • The sensitivity of this film drops really quickly, meaning greater contrast or large dark patches
  • Purple jumps out way less than green. Bear it in mind during composition and framing.
  • The fresher the growth, the lighter the natural green, the more punchy your purple will be.
Chi Lin nunnery, Hong Kong

Exposure

The LomoChrome Purple film is marketed as ISO 100-400. So should we be shooting at ISO 100 or 400? As it turns out, the difference is subtle on evergreen plants. In a sunny afternoon, I got the most intense purple shooting at ISO 200, or at ISO 100 with a circular polarizer filter.

Goldilocks rule

Direct Sunlight or In the Shade?

This really depends on the natural color and texture of the object. If it’s a waxy watermelon, direct sunlight will make it look rather washed out at ISO 100. In general, I’d shoot at ISO 200 under the sun, or ISO 100 in the shade. I think the purple got more intense as the sunset.

ISO 100: Waxy watermelons washed out under the sun

For those who are not convinced about shooting outdoor plants in the shade, just look at these magical mossy parts of a Bonsai. Again, it’s hard to predict what will turn purple.

ISO 100: Bonsai in the shade

Sunset

Still the golden hour! If you want intensity and saturation, wait for the sun to set.

These waterlilies were shot at sunset, ISO 160, with a circular polarizer.

Creatively Speaking

Because of the false colors and high contrast, I’m a lot more aware of the different shapes and contours. What I love most about this new film is how purple can morph into cyan and turquoise on the same leaf. Is it because of the fuzzy surface of the lotus leaves? Is it how the sun was shining through the palm? Guess we’ll have to do more experiments to find out.

So there. Hope you’ve found bits of this review useful. My LomoChrome Purple test shoot album can be found here. I’d like to end with this question. Why do you want purple?

작성자 ihave2pillows 작성일 2014-03-07 카테고리 #gear #사람 #review #sunlight #contrast #exposure #colour-shifts #infrared-film #lomochrome-purple-400-xr

LomoChrome Purple Film 100-400 35mm

이 독특한 컬러 네거티브 필름은 당신의 사진의 자연스러운 톤을 새로운 색조로 변형시켜 당신을 놀라게 할 것입니다. 우리가 사랑하는 코닥 에어로크롬 필름의 사이키델릭 적외선 외관의 부활한 것 같은 이 필름은 놀라운 사진 결과를 보여줍니다.

21 덧글

  1. robertofiuza
    robertofiuza ·

    Amazing review!

  2. hafenperle
    hafenperle ·

    Thank you so much!!! Your review is superduper helpful :)

  3. guanatos
    guanatos ·

    wow! thanks a bunch this is really helpful.

  4. clownshoes
    clownshoes ·

    What great information!

  5. boobert
    boobert ·

    Awesome Review! thank you so much!

  6. ihave2pillows
    ihave2pillows ·

    @robertofiuza @poepel @hafenperle @guanatos @clownshoes @boobert Welcome !! Thank you all. Glad you like it ~

  7. iamtheju
    iamtheju ·

    Looking forward to finally shooting some of my LomoChrome Purple which i Bought in the first batch and still haven't shot. I'll be saving your rainbow umbrella shots as reference so thanks!

  8. ihave2pillows
    ihave2pillows ·

    @iamtheju Have fun! With daffodils blooming everywhere, Spring should be a fantastic time for it :)

  9. chilledvondub
    chilledvondub ·

    This is an excellent review! touched based on pretty much everything I want to try! I'm anticipating using it for some abstract portraits (the psyhicadelic look) I've seen people be able to manipulate the popping yellow skin tones that EIR offers!

  10. billseye
    billseye ·

    Love it, thanks!

  11. b2377
    b2377 ·

    Now I want to see what LCT does to that umbrella! :-)

  12. ihave2pillows
    ihave2pillows ·

    @B2377 haha, I'm still trying to find that umbrella!

  13. dmgphotography
    dmgphotography ·

    Oh I wish I'd seen this a year or so ago, before I shot my first roll. My first roll, I thought it was a real IR film and used a yellow filter when I shot it, as I did with the old Kodak HIR film. Shot at 400, It just made the purple very intense, with very little difference in colour with anything else. I might as well have shot a normal colour film with a purple filter!

  14. lucaro
    lucaro ·

    THANK YOU!!

  15. ellanaught
    ellanaught ·

    Yet another great review! Thank you so much!

  16. honeygrahams224
    honeygrahams224 ·

    Such a great review, and very helpful.

  17. bonadriel
    bonadriel ·

    Hi, great review! I just have a question though, when you shoot it at, say, 200 ISO, do you develop it at 200 ISO or do you still develop at 400 to get the effects in here?

  18. ihave2pillows
    ihave2pillows ·

    @bonadriel Hi Bonadriel, I'm afraid most of the time, I just gave the roll of film to the shop with no specific instructions on how to develop it...

  19. bonadriel
    bonadriel ·

    Fair enough, thanks!

  20. herr-stadtgraf
    herr-stadtgraf ·

    Great review, thanks!
    I recently shot a roll of this film. But sadly I was just disappointed. Out of 36 shots only one was interesting. All other photos looked like black& white shots with a purple filter. Pretty lame. But I noticed it works best in colourful environments. But given that price I really don't recommend. Maybe I will try again next spring/summer when there are more natural light and colours around.
    (I have tried a great variety of things, indoors and outdoors, landscape, portrait, architecture... but it just looks boring (on behalf of the film).

  21. papa-attila
    papa-attila ·

    *****

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