Lomochrome Metropolis in the rain

Lomography were kind enough to send us a few rolls of their 2021 reformulated Lomochrome Metropolis film recently, and I knew exactly where I wanted to shoot it: a rainy night in London.

This film has a very unique look, with a strong green cast in the shadows, very deep blacks, lots of contrast and a signature muted chrome aesthetic. In most of the images here I've balanced the green cast for a more neutral look which is fairly easily done. It's perfectly suited to an overcast day in London or shot at night under high contrast artificial light.

Note: The first two images are 120 shot on a 6x9 camera. The rest are 35mm.

Green Shadows

Here's an example of the film without any curve adjustments. Shot in overcast light, the shadows are very green which is the intentional 'metropolis' look, but it can be an acquired taste. As you can see from the other images, the green cast in the shadows is easily balanced for a more neutral look, if you want more natural skin tones for example.

Dust/Bubbling

In some of the 35mm shots here, you can see a lot of what appears to be dust, but it's actually bubbling within the film. It came back from the lab that way, and they had no idea what happened. I feel like it could be an issue around developing this film at super high temperatures (which labs sometimes do to speed up the dev process), so I would recommend being careful with which lab you get it developed at.

Conclusion

Lomochrome Metropolis is an acquired taste, but that's pretty much Lomography's remit when it comes to producing film and cameras. They're a manufacturer who really seem to value the creative possibilities with shooting film, and like any of their other film, it's really down to how you use it.

Personally, I love shooting this stuff at night and am looking forward to doing a lot of night photography as it gets darker earlier over the next few months.