Autumn has begun! Every time of year has its special benefits, and autumn is (not exclusively) exciting for the wild and fiery colours of the trees. However, today I shall be making very different use of the fiery colours of the leaves. One reoccuring theme in my blog entries is the fascination about picture content that differs markedly from the way we experience the world with our own eyes (excuse me for ignoring the individual differences in human perception). With regard to this theme, today’s post is very obvious.

First things first: All pictures in this blog are unedited and Photoshop-free. Any colour enhancing options during filmscan were disabled. This also applies to the pictures seen in this blog entry.

I have eagerly been waiting to get the results for this very special kind of film since January! This is when I found out about the surreal colour negative film LomoChrome Purple. The world that emerges in the pictures is clearly different from what is usually expected. Greens turn purple, yellows turn pink, blue turns turquoise, red stays red! Mysterious results are guaranteed. All pictures were taken with a Nikon FG-20.

ISO 400, Shutter Speed 1/125s, Aperture f/11

This is a colour negative film, no filters used, ISO 400. I first feared that the pictures would turn out too dark, since I was shooting not long before sunset and I had later read that others thought the film needed a lot of light. However, it appears that the chosen settings were appropriate and because of the doubts I had I was even more surprised and impressed by the results.

ISO 400, Shutter Speed 1/125s, Aperture f/11

One of my favourite effects is when the sky turns deep turquoise, and this colour is contrasted with a saturated pink that is found in the yellow leaves of autumn trees.

ISO 400, Shutter Speed 1/125, Aperture f/11

Finally, after all the colour madness, it is surprising to see that something does not change. Red stays red. It even becomes more saturated and boosted, so that it stands out even more against the unordinary colours around it. Red is the new black sheep. It is special because it functions in a twofold kind of way, being regularly red and unusually normal.

ISO 400, Shutter Speed 1/125s, Aperture f/11

Overall, I am very pleased with the results and seldomly have I been so excited while scanning the negatives. Image after image struck me with surprise. However, I cannot overstate that these false colours have a halo effect. I tend to overestimate the actual value of these pictures and this overestimation is due to the false colours. I have still to find out how to integrate the colours meaningfully. The colours need to make sense. Without this purpose, these are merely nice looking pictures with wrong colours. It is like following a trend without knowing the purpose for the trend. It is like getting the very latest smartphone simply to posess it. It is like singing about sex and parties and drugs because it appears cool. It is superficial because there is nothing behind it.

Nevertheless, I have had a lot of fun with this film and am sure that this fun will be of long duration!