Film Photography in 2025 Is Bluer and Less Saturated

Sep 08, 2025

Jeremy Gray

A boat with lights reflecting on calm blue water is anchored between tree-lined shores at dusk, with distant mountains under a cloudy sky. — Fujifilm Provia 100F | Photo by Jaron Schneider

As film popularity has surged in recent years, ushering in a renaissance of sorts for the medium that was nearly killed by digital photography in the early 21st century, modern analog photographers have been increasingly flocking toward black-and-white film.

Over at Lomography, a company that celebrates all things analog photography, the company looked through thousands of photos uploaded to its film-obsessed community over the past 15 years to see what people are shooting. The interesting blog post, seen by Digital Camera World, shows that modern analog photographers are seeing a desaturated world through their film cameras.

There are two sides to this. Newer color film photos are less vivid and colorful than before. Beyond that, photographers are simply buying more black and white film. As Lomography’s chart showing the color breakdown of photos uploaded to its community from 2010 through this year demonstrates, the result is that newer photos are less colorful overall.

A stacked area chart from 2010 to 2025 with multiple colored and shaded layers, showing growth over time. The layers increase more rapidly early on and slowly level out after 2015. No labels visible. — Lomography’s chart shows the relative frequency of different colors and shades of gray in photos uploaded to its analog photography community from 2010-2025. Over the past 15 years, black-and-white images have taken up a larger piece of the pie, while color’s influence has shrunk. Notably, the relative proportion of different color tones has changed, too. Cooler colors are relatively more common now than they were in 2010. Consequently, warmer tones have become less prevalent. | Credit: Lomography

“Right away, one trend stood out: darker and more monotone colors outweighed the colorful ones year after year. What we found most compelling in our data was that color seems to be fading from film photography overall,” Lomography writes. “Starting from 2010, vibrant, bright hues have steadily declined in our community’s photos. It feels like the world is moving in a more neutral, muted direction, and we wanted to know why.”

When it comes to color film being less colorful, Lomography speculates that there are three potential explanations.

A narrow cobblestone alley between tall buildings leads to a sunlit town with a tall, ornate clock tower in the background under a clear blue sky. — Kodak Ektar 100 | Photo by Jaron Schneider

First, film labs, which have fluctuated in number as film’s popularity ebbed and flowed, rarely have bespoke scanning profiles for all currently available film stocks.

“Now, with more obscure and newer films floating around, and fewer tailored profiles in play, labs often scan using generic auto-corrections. This can leave scans looking flatter, less vivid colors, especially if they’re shared exactly as they come from the lab,” Lomography says.

Lomography speculates that another culprit in the desaturation of film photography is the booming popularity of instant photography. Fujifilm announced earlier this year that it had sold 100 million Instax cameras and printers since 1998, a significant chunk of which it sold over the past 15 years. While Instax and other instant film media have good reason to be popular, it is not a particularly vibrant medium. The influx of somewhat flat instant photos brings down the overall color in the room.

Fujifilm Instax MINI 99 color tone blue — ‘This is a good example of Instax film and its bias towards cold tones and overexposure,’ Chris Niccolls wrote in his Instax Mini 99 Review earlier this year. | Photo by Chris Niccolls

Next up is the nature of film itself. Some iconic stocks, like Velvia, are chemically engineered to be super vibrant, whereas Provia 100F offers more subtle colors. Granted, neither stock is necessarily easy to come by in the United States. Provia is exceedingly hard to get, and Velvia, while also hard to find, is a bit easier to buy, especially outside the U.S. Broadly more accessible and affordable color films “tend to be more neutral,” Lomography says.

A twisted, moss-covered tree with dark branches is surrounded by vibrant orange and red autumn leaves in a lush, green forest setting. Sunlight filters softly through the foliage. — Although Velvia is awesome, Provia 100F delivers beautiful, more natural colors.

Fujifilm Provia 100F | Photo by Jaron Schneider

There may even be a fourth force to consider: why people are drawn to film in 2025 in the first place. There are lots of different reasons why photographers still shoot film, although arguably, one of the biggest is to enjoy photography in a different way. Film offers a different experience than digital cameras, and that’s what draws many modern analog shooters into the fold.

Since digital cameras capture very vivid photos, it make senses that photographers want their film photos to look different, which can mean less saturated and more natural color tones. A quick look at Instagram reflects how saturation can go haywire in digital photography, so it stands to reason that, on top of the considerations above, there has been a shift in consumer preference. Less saturated film photos push back harder against modern digital photography trends.

Tall bamboo stalks stand close together in a forest, with sunlight filtering through the dense green foliage above and casting dappled light on the leafy ground. — Kodak Ektar 100 | Photo by Jaron Schneider

A man wearing a black knit beanie and a gray sweater stands outdoors on a sunny day, with blurred yellow buses and a shelter visible in the background. — This lovely portrait of Cameralabs’ Gordan Laing was shot on Kodak Ektar 100 | Photo by Jaron Schneider

Lomography notes that alongside the tonal shift of color film photography since 2010, there has also been a concurrent rise in the number of black-and-white film stocks available and sold.

“Stocks like Ilford HP5 and Formapan have become steadily more popular since 2018, according to our own research of photos posted to LomoHomes,” Lomography says. “Color film production remains a more complicated process than creating a new B&W film emulsion, so there have been more frequent releases of B&W films than of color films in the last two decades.”

A city square with historic buildings, people walking and standing, and a flock of birds flying overhead. Two people in the foreground wear coats and appear to be checking their phones. The sky is partly cloudy. — Fujifilm Acros | Photo by Jaron Schneider

A man sits in a dimly lit room by a window, looking outside. Through the window, a woman carrying bags walks by on the street, and cars and storefront signs are visible in the background. — Fujifilm Acros | Photo by Jaron Schneider

Plus, as Lomography notes, black-and-white films are usually cheaper, and film photography is a costly hobby.

Lomography’s detailed blog post does more than discuss the current state of color film photography and the rising interest in declining saturation; it also offers a history lesson on color film photography itself. For even more information on the history of color photography, check out PetaPixel‘s article, “A Brief History of Color Photography.” It’s an informative trip down memory lane.

“The thing is? We’re not mad about this trend at all. Watching the colors that spark our Lomographers’ creativity and seeing how they’ve shifted over time is fascinating,” Lomography concludes. “Because here’s the beauty of film photography: there are no right answers. Just the freedom to follow your mood and let your wild side shine, whatever shade it comes in.”

Image credits: Photographs by Jaron Schneider. Film chart graphic by Lomography.