Our images don’t look like they used to… Our photos are lies – Part 2

Welcome to the second part of “Our images don’t look like they used to… Our photos are lies” (click the link if you missed it!). The first part had some great feedback, and ruffled the feathers of a few who simply didn’t understand that it was looking back at a time before technology, the internet and AI. We’ve always strived to capture great images, but the technology and the way we thought about capturing images has been hugely influenced by all that’s come since those halcyon days. 

This part is going to talk about recreating and taking photos like those old images in the modern era, but it’s going to take a lot of work on your part to forget all you’ve been taught over the last decade or more of intense sensory input of photography skills. 

This applies to fun photography, for yourself as we have all moved on from those days. Obviously if you’re working with photography, you’ll have the habits of a well seasoned photographer, so try and forget all you know.

It would be much easier if you stopped using any modern photo taking equipment, and that includes your latest camera and your mobile phone apps that use AI (most modern photography apps)!

As a suggestion, here are a few things you could use to relive those days (occasionally will do) to give you back the look and feel  of the images that we are looking to get back and start taking again;

• A 35mm disposable film camera – This will give you a nice authentic look, and the aim is to just take snaps, so settings are not important.
• An instant camera – Probably the best option in 2025 for authenticity.
• An old “digicam” (usually found in the back of your cupboard!) – Great cameras to use when you adjust your brain and thoughts back to the tine they were available.
• A vintage camera app on your latest phone such as OldRoll on Android or Mood Camera on Apple – The simplest and cheapest way to start this new “old” way of taking photos.
• An old bridge camera with built in flash – versatile and readily available.

This may sound strange, but the technology was a huge part in why images looked the way they did. It was not perfect, and you had to learn to love the imperfections with every shot, no going back, no editing, just the print or file. Back in those days, we loved the image for it’s content, not if it was technically good or bad.

The second thing you’ll need is a sense of self control. You’ll need to think back to a time when you didn’t reel off a dozen images, but only took one shot. That one shot generally was in full automatic mode, and the flash more often than not would go off for no reason. 

That’s the easy parts sorted. Now you need to sort yourself out! Remember, cameras were slow, people enjoyed the odd snap and you ONLY took a photograph when you needed to, and you never or rarely shares it with anyone outside of your friends and family.

You didn’t take shot after shot for perfection, you simply captured the moment. Almost every camera had a huge depth of field, so everything is in focus. You’d have little or no control to anything, so some people might be blurry, the exposure might just let you see their eyes, you may have accidentally cut off the top of their heads. It doesn’t matter! It’s one shot and a lifetime of memories.

Most images those days were not badly shot by bad photographers, they just captured the moment. And then you moved onto the next image a few minutes, or even days later. 

Editing is a no-no also. That means no cropping, no straightening, no correcting exposure, no object removal… It’s all part of the moment! It’s why I love instant film so much, or shooting in jpeg only (and trying not to make any adjustments later). It’s a one in a lifetime button press with no going back. Remember, we are keeping it honest, warts and all.

I’m sure that 99% of you won’t try this, and that’s understandable, after all, it’s hard to go back. But for you 1% that attempt it, I wish you good luck. You’re keeping the moment “real” and stopping the photography lies.

That moment is the sum of all its parts. The image you’ve just taken being the biggest part, followed by the memory of pressing the shutter, the memory of the time and the place and the experience.

Will it really recreate our older images? A lot of what we look at are distant memories. We didn’t think of what we were doing was any different to what we do now. So who knows? If you can think of a way to bring the honesty back into photography, let me know. I’ve had a lot of feedback saying AI (as outlined in Part 1) is one of the, if not the biggest culprit in making our snap-shot images look the way they are today.

I hope you enjoyed this little two part series. Don’t take it too seriously, because life is short and we’ve got so more many memories to make.