A comprehensive analysis of film photography trends reveals that analog photographers in 2025 are gravitating toward cooler, less saturated imagery, with black and white film experiencing a remarkable surge in popularity. This shift represents a significant departure from the vibrant, warm-toned photography that dominated the medium in previous decades.
Lomography, a leading company in the analog photography community, conducted an extensive study examining thousands of photographs uploaded to its platform over the past 15 years. The research, which tracked color trends from 2010 through 2025, demonstrates a clear pattern: modern film photography is becoming increasingly desaturated and monochromatic. The data shows that black and white images now occupy a substantially larger portion of uploaded content, while colorful photographs have steadily declined.
The study's most striking finding centers on the dramatic shift in color distribution. Cooler tones have become relatively more prevalent compared to 2010, while warmer hues have experienced a corresponding decline. According to Lomography's analysis, "darker and more monotone colors outweighed the colorful ones year after year," with vibrant, bright colors showing a steady decrease throughout the surveyed period.
Several factors contribute to the desaturation trend in color film photography. Film processing laboratories, which have fluctuated in number as analog photography's popularity has ebbed and flowed, often lack specialized scanning profiles for the diverse range of currently available film stocks. With more obscure and newer films entering the market, labs frequently resort to generic auto-corrections during the scanning process. This approach typically results in flatter, less vivid colors, particularly when images are shared directly from the lab without additional post-processing.
The explosive growth of instant photography has also influenced the overall color palette of film photography. Fujifilm's announcement that it has sold 100 million Instax cameras and printers since 1998, with a significant portion of these sales occurring in the past 15 years, highlights instant photography's mainstream appeal. However, instant film media, including Instax, tends to produce somewhat flat images with a bias toward cold tones and overexposure. This "influx of somewhat flat instant photos brings down the overall color in the room," according to the study.
The inherent characteristics of available film stocks play a crucial role in the color shift. While some legendary films like Kodak's Velvia are chemically engineered for super-vibrant results, others such as Fujifilm's Provia 100F offer more subtle, natural color reproduction. However, these high-saturation films are increasingly difficult to obtain, particularly in the United States. Provia is exceptionally hard to find, and while Velvia remains somewhat more accessible, it too presents availability challenges for American photographers.
Market dynamics have pushed photographers toward more readily available and affordable color film options, which tend to produce more neutral results. As Lomography notes, "broadly more accessible and affordable color films tend to be more neutral," creating a practical constraint that influences the overall aesthetic direction of contemporary film photography.
A fourth contributing factor may lie in photographers' motivations for choosing film in 2025. Many analog enthusiasts are drawn to film precisely because it offers a different experience and aesthetic compared to digital photography. Since digital cameras typically capture very vivid images, it makes sense that photographers seeking an alternative would gravitate toward less saturated, more natural color tones. The oversaturation prevalent in digital photography, particularly visible on social media platforms like Instagram, may be driving a counter-movement toward more subdued film aesthetics.
The rise in black and white photography accompanies these color trends. Film stocks such as Ilford HP5 and Formapan have gained steady popularity since 2018, according to Lomography's research of photos posted to their community platform. The increased availability of black and white film stocks, combined with their typically lower cost compared to color alternatives, makes them attractive options for photographers operating within budget constraints.
The production complexity differences between color and black and white films also influence market availability. Creating new black and white film emulsions is significantly less complicated than developing color film, resulting in more frequent releases of monochrome options over the past two decades. This greater variety and accessibility naturally contributes to black and white photography's growing presence in the analog community.
Lomography's research extends beyond trend analysis to provide historical context for color film photography's evolution. The study traces the medium's development and examines how technological, economic, and aesthetic factors have shaped contemporary practices. The company emphasizes that this shift toward muted tones and black and white photography reflects the fundamental freedom that analog photography offers.
The photography community has embraced this trend toward desaturation and monochrome work. Rather than viewing the shift as a limitation, many see it as an expansion of creative possibilities. The movement away from highly saturated imagery allows photographers to explore subtlety, mood, and tonal relationships that might be overshadowed by intense colors.
Lomography concludes its analysis with an optimistic perspective on these evolving trends. The company notes that observing how colors spark photographers' creativity and tracking their shifts over time provides fascinating insights into the medium's evolution. They emphasize that film photography's beauty lies in its lack of rigid rules, offering photographers the freedom to follow their artistic instincts and express their creativity in whatever form or shade appeals to them.
