How to Shoot Like Your Favorite Portrait Lomographer

The Lomography community is a pool of understated talents and creatives. From here emerged some of our legendary Lomographers who pushed the envelope for film and analogue photography. Here's what you can learn some of our esteemed portraitist Lomographers – lafiledeer, simonesavo, pearlgirl77 and ccwu.

Express Like Lafilledeer

If emotive portraiture is what we’re talking about, no one else comes close to the work of Cecile a.k.a. lafiledeer. She loves to take images of people on the margins and allows their bodies to express their feelings. That’s why even with such simple compositions she’s able to make them artful and incredibly soft.

To shoot like Cécile, understanding the emotions, using techniques to decorate her compositions such as flowers, leaves, smoke superimposed on the portrait is a step. And you can never go wrong with bokeh.

“The expression and the body language are very important. If the model looks queasy, you can't take a good photograph.“

Get Quirky Like Simonesavo

The Italian Lomographer Simone a.k.a. simonesavo has a thing for looking and creating characters through his lens. His compositions are simple, but he adds special, unique details — whether by filters and vignetting — to make them fun, quirky yet distinctively neat. While animal portraits are also part of his portraiture regime, but he knows how to make even the inanimate alive, as if living.

Like Simone, we encourage everyone to look beyond faces and find them elsewhere. Personalities and characters can be found even in the most unlikely places. There are no rules in Simone’s visual language.

Project Like Pearlgirl77

Tamara a.k.a. pearlgirl77 is a standard-setter in Lomography, but her portraiture deserves specific hype as she manages to be so effortless yet impactful. If there’s one word to describe her portraits? Energetic. This vibe comes not just from how the elements, in reality, fall into place. To shoot like Tamara is to purposefully push the limits — light, color, contrast, timing, angles, and perspectives. Be boundless.

“Do what you want! Don't let somebody say to you, you can't do something! And TRY TRY TRY.. with all the fails you will learn a lot and some fails make wonderful pictures, like my favorite ones!”

Compose Like CC Wu

Black is always in fashion as Lomographer CC Wu a.k.a. ccwu imbues them with intensity on his contrasts. In return, his colors brightly pop, creating stark shapes and contrast. His models, mostly dark-haired, lithe and petite, make bold impressions through their fierce projections on camera. His portraiture’s too iconically intense to be missed and mistaken as someone else’s.

Want to shoot like CC Wu? Make the most out of your color negative films and push them. Have a rapport with the models and let them look straight at you, unfiltered.

Inspired? What's are you currently up to, dear analogue soul? Let us know through the comments!

2020-07-19 #culture #news #people #community #film-photography #portrait-photography