Lomochrome Color ‘92 Sun-Kissed Is a Fun Film With Character All Its Own

Toward the end of the summer of 2024, Lomography struck again, bringing a new (sort of) addition to its Lomochrome line of experimental films. The company introduced Lomochrome Color ‘92 Sun-Kissed, a color negative film meant for experimentation and indulging in nostalgia.

To best understand Color ‘92 Sun-Kissed, it really helps to know a bit about its precursor film: the original Color ‘92. Lomochrome Color ‘92 was released a year earlier in 2023 and the name Color ‘92 is a reference to the year that Lomography was founded.

Lomography billed the film as a throwback to the color films and one-hour lab processing of the early 1990s. We certainly don’t fault them for this inventive presentation nevertheless it does have a tendency to present a not-entirely-accurate depiction of what this movie does.

We wouldn’t say that Color ‘92 appears to be like all that very like coloration movie of the Nineteen Nineties.

There have been some fairly enjoyable coloration movies from that point and this ain’t certainly one of them. If something, Color ‘92 has a look more akin to film that was originally exposed in the 1990s then left to sit undeveloped for 30 years, aging and deteriorating along the way. Color ‘92 has a grainy look with somewhat muted colors and a split color cast with the highlights looking a coldish blue while the shadows tend to have a yellow-green cast to them. This isn’t meant to disparage Color ‘92, simply an try and get to the center of its look and provides a extra correct presentation of it. Color ‘92 is a enjoyable movie and it has a personality all its personal (until you go samples of Wolfen NC400 movie, then it’s fairly much like that inventory). But it’s on the chilly facet and its shadows are greenish and it does have outstanding grain.

So now you bounce forward a 12 months and Lomography broadcasts a brand new Sun-Kissed model of Color ‘92. Some speculate that if the unique Color ‘92 is predicated on the aforementioned Wolfen NC400, the brand new Sun-Kissed is predicated on Wolfen NC500. There very nicely could possibly be some reality to this however in the mean time, all we now have is nice guesswork and hypothesis. Lomography is famously tight-lipped for the place it sources these movies. So, as a substitute, we’ll set these theories apart and deal with the movie in hand as it’s introduced.

Sun-Kissed has a really comparable look to the unique Color ‘92 however with a contact of heat. We wouldn’t name it a heat movie, simply heater. It is “sun-kissed” in spite of everything — sun-kissed, not sun-drenched.

Lomochrome Color ‘92 Sun-Kissed is still a coolish-to-neutral film, especially when not compared to the original Color ‘92 to see the comparative increase in warmth. But Sun-Kissed’s coloration palette is nearer to impartial than its predecessor, so there’s that. Sun-Kissed additionally does higher in its shadows and lacks the inexperienced/yellow tendency of the unique Color ‘92. Our check pictures with Color ‘92 Sun-Kissed all had extra naturally-colored shadows proper from the scanner. Split coloration casts drive us a bit nuts, so this was an appreciated change for certain!

Apart from its colours, what else does Sun-Kissed do? Well, it has above regular distinction. Not loopy quantities however undoubtedly greater than your common roll of Kodak Gold or Portra. It is perhaps a contact greater than Kodak Ektar however not by a lot. Its total saturation can also be decrease than regular. In this vein, Color ‘92 Sun-Kissed bears some passing similarities to Lomochrome Metropolis, albeit not practically as “color film noir-ish”.

The movie grain of Color ‘92 Sun-Kissed can also be noticeably smoother than the unique Color ‘92. We wouldn’t name this a effective grain movie by any stretch of the creativeness. In reality, if we have been speaking about Sun-Kissed in vacuum (nevermind the impossibility of transmitting sound in an airless house) we’d classify this a grainy movie. It is grainy, it’s simply not as grainy because the OG Color ‘92. If you’ll allow us an unscientific comparability, we’d say that Color ‘92 Sun-Kissed has the grain of a movie a cease sooner, similar to an ISO 800 movie.

In our expertise, Sun-Kissed additionally has beneath common latitude. We haven’t completed intensive testing throughout below and over publicity however based mostly on the handful of rolls we shot, we famous that element within the shadows does fall off fairly rapidly even when the movie is correctly uncovered. This shouldn’t be a movie we’d suggest pushing to ISO 800 however then once more we could possibly be shocked.

On the overexposed facet of issues, it additionally feels just like the movie reacts comparatively quick to missed publicity with the colours and distinction getting noticeably flatter and washed out. During the course of our trials we shot rolls in an Olympus XA facet by facet with a Lomomatic 110. The Lomomatic negatives have been denser than the XA and a cease or two overexposed. The ensuing scans from the 110 movie are a lot much less punchy than the 35mm counterparts. While there are numerous different elements that may have an effect on this (lens high quality, lens coating, and so on), our hunch is an efficient a part of the distinction we have been seeing was within the change to publicity.

And in fact there’s additionally Color ‘92 Sun-Kissed in medium format. What overview of this movie could be full with out capturing this in medium format? Spoiler alert, this was our favourite format to shoot Sun-Kissed in however full disclosure, we’re undoubtedly biased towards medium format generally. In 120 Color ‘92 Sun-Kissed appears to be like even higher. Its grain turns into a lot much less noticeable and the movie retains its distinctive dampened coloration palette and toned-up distinction.

We have only a couple extra tidbits to share with you relating to Color ‘92 Sun-Kissed. The first we found by probability. While the title of the movie implies a bit greater than it usually accomplishes, we have been actually impressed with our Sun-Kissed photographs after we shot them in late afternoon or early night golden hour mild. Give Color ‘92 the slanting mild on the ends of the day, or a very good sundown and this movie appears to be like actually, very nice. Maybe there’s something to the Sun-Kissed title that speaks of an affinity for golden hour. If you attempt a roll of this movie we undoubtedly suggest saving just a few pictures for the tip of the day.

The different fast expertise to share is that this movie appeared to do alright with lengthy exposures. We didn’t attempt too many lengthy exposures or for too lengthy (our longest was within the 15 to 60 second vary) however the couple lengthy publicity photographs we did make appeared fairly good! Good sufficient that we’d take into account capturing this movie via some ND filters and giving it a bit extra experimentation in that space of images.

And that brings us to the tip of our overview of Lomochrome Color ‘92 Sun-Kissed. We admit, we went into this film with somewhat low expectations given our hit-and-miss experiences with the original Color ‘92. But Sun-Kissed surprised and even impressed us. It serves as a good reminder that every film is a different flavor and some flavors suit some photographers better or worse. You will never know what you will like unless you experiment a little. That is one thing we give Lomography due credit for: encouraging us film photographers to get out there and try new things – or in this case, new films.

We encourage you to try it out. Lomochrome Color ’92 Sun Kissed is on sale at this time solely!

This story is dropped at you by Blue Moon Camera and Machine in Portland, OR. Blue Moon presents movie, improvement providers, printing, and even an ever-rotating line of movie cameras and lenses. PetaPixel Members obtain 10% off all lab providers with Blue Moon: Join at this time!

Image creditPhotos by Zeb Andrews, Annie Buckles, and Gabriel Binder and offered courtesy of Blue Moon Camera and Machine.