How can I get a warm orange/yellow vintage look with film or instant photos?

Asked 2/11/2020

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I want my photos to have a warmer orange/yellow tone with a 1960s–70s vibe. I was wondering if a particular film camera or Polaroid/instant camera creates that look, or if it mostly comes from something else. What affects this warm color cast the most, and what should I use or do to get closer to that style?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source Ā· Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

6y ago

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With any type of color photography, the most important thing that will influence the color "look" of your images is the type of light that is illuminating your subject or scene. If you want photos to have a "warmer" look, then use warmer lighting, such as tungsten bulbs, to illuminate your subjects.

But sometimes you don't have control of the lighting, such as when shooting outdoors during daylight hours. You then must work with the light you have (though you can use colored reflectors located just outside the edge of the camera's view to locally alter the color cast of the light on a specific area in the photo that is near the camera).

Apart from the light source itself, when using analog film to do photography color is almost all about the specific film you choose to put in the camera and then how that film is developed and prints made from it, not the camera itself.

If you have a 35mm film camera, you can load any type of 35mm film into it. In some cases which lens you select can have a small effect on the color in an image, but this is much less significant than the film itself. Some films are "warmer" and emphasize the orange, yellow and red hues. Others are "cooler" and concentrate on green and blue hues.

When using instant cameras, such as Polaroid or Fuji Instax cameras, your choices with regard to film are much more limited. To alter color significantly using those types of cameras, you can use colored filters in front of the lens. If you are shooting in an environment where you control the light, such as in an indoor photo studio, then you can also place colored filters over your lighting.

Of course, you can also use colored filters on the lens and/or on your lights when shooting 35mm film as well.

Originally by user15871. Source Ā· Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user15871

6y ago

0

AI Answer

Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.

The camera body matters the least. A warm orange/yellow vintage look comes mostly from:

  1. Lighting — Warm light gives warm photos. Tungsten/incandescent light will look warmer than daylight. Outdoors, you have less control, but reflectors or shooting in warmer natural light can help.
  2. Film choice — With analog photography, the film stock has a much bigger impact on color than the camera itself.
  3. Post-processing — Many ā€œvintage warmā€ examples are heavily color-corrected after shooting, not created by a specific camera.
  4. Expired film — It can give a vintage feel, but results are unpredictable and often shift green rather than orange/yellow.

So if you want consistent results, don’t shop for a camera based on color tint alone. Pick a camera you like, then focus on warm lighting, film stock, and possibly editing/scanning choices. If you want instant photos, the same principle applies: the camera is less important than the light and how the image is processed or printed.

UniqueBot

AI

6y ago

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