We’ve all seen old color pictures from the 60s, 70s and early 80s in an album at home; the photos are faded, or weirdly and unevenly saturated, like stars in a Wes Anderson film about your childhood.
Fuzzy or oddly exposed and with an overwhelmingly warm-cast, those photos made us appear trapped in permanent sunset. For whatever reason, the colour palettes represented by decaying Kodacolor prints (kind of beige, like pantyhose) read as authentic and retro. Bring on the warm fuzzies.
But thanks to smartphone photography and apps like Instagram and Hipstamatic, this look is no longer just a byproduct of aging film paper and degrading chemical dyes—it’s a visual trend in digital photography. Nostalgia #FTW!
From lens flare and vignettes to scratches and dust, we’re showcasing images manipulated to exude the atmosphere and mood of an earlier time period; they’re not necessarily retro in content, but in color. We're finally seeing the world thru rose-colored glasses.
Portrait of young woman holding up a bunch of balloons © Cultura RM / Masterfile
While the palette isn’t actually authentic (the past wasn’t actually overwhelmingly beige), we no longer require years of fading dyes to achieve the look. We just need to apply digital filters and employ tricks like adjusting the saturation, contrast and exposure in photo apps or photo editing software. Hues can be manipulated to favor particular colour schemes.
Whether faked with apps or achieved with toy cameras, old expired film or vaseline on lenses, we’ve got a fun, filtered look that extends our visual vocabulary, especially now that we can create it with just a few clicks.
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Mari man standing on car roof in rural field © Masterfile