Current trend of using creative colours/tones in photos eg instagram style filters

What do you think of the current trend of putting photos through creative filters eg like instagram. Do you like this look? Do you think it looks interesting and edgy? I saw a bank ad today, and in the ad was a collection of vintage looking photos with unusual colour tones. That got me thinking about how popular this type of look is.

I must admit that I dont really like it much. I see the occassional photo that it suits, but on the whole I dont like it. I dont know why exactly, I think I find it a bit gimmicky? Am I just out of touch and getting too old to appreciate current trends?

I am interested to hear what others think.

There's always a trend going on, before the "Vintage" craze, we had the over-processed "HDR" look, and before that "selective color" (B&W with a single color element), and so on... I guess if it's popular with the masses these days, it makes no sense to fight against the current if you intend to profit from it, at the very least you could take the concept itself to an art form and try making something meaningful instead of covering up the tracks of the fact that you shot the photo on an 8MP phone camera.

This is definitely not new though, especially in cinema; have you seen the film Chronicle? It looks like it was shot with old camcorders for the storytelling, but in fact everything was shot on an ALEXA (top-of-the-line $80k digital film camera) and then dumbed down in post for maximum control of how they wanted it to look bad. This is often done with "found footage" films.

If it's in bank ads, you know it's no longer cutting edge.

melcat wrote in post #15275466
If it's in bank ads, you know it's no longer cutting edge.

Maybe not cutting edge, but nothing new has popped up yet, so it's still the "in" thing. I definitely see enough if it everywhere to know.

If it makes somebody happy, why not. Doesn't do anything for me, though.

It makes poorly lit cell phone pictures look a lot better. I like using some of the lomo presets on mine (little photo for android)

Can you show an example ?

Frank H - the look I am talking about is basically the instagram look that people apply to photos, it is sort of a vintage look with a magenta, yellow or green colour cast and sometimes a vignette. Am I allowed to link to the bank ads? I am not sure if that is allowed. I just did a google image search of instagram filters, and you get a few examples that way.

I dont mind instagram on crappy cell phone photos, they usually need a bit of help to look better. But I dont really like the look applied to regular photos.

I'm not instagram person, to say it in polite way.

Some people here are really good at digital PP to make it looks like film colors and structure.
But I prefer film colors. It is naturally beautiful.
Some people say here its possible to have same result with digital cameras, but I've seen only very few pictures (not on this forum) so far where I was struggling about if it is film or digital.

I am glad I am not the only one who doesnt like this look. Yeah you are right kolor-pikker, there always seems to be a trend going on, I hope the vintage look disappears like some of the other trends you have mentioned.

Kolor-Pikker wrote in post #15275449
There's always a trend going on, before the "Vintage" craze, we had the over-processed "HDR" look, and before that "selective color" (B&W with a single color element), and so on... I guess if it's popular with the masses these days, it makes no sense to fight against the current if you intend to profit from it, at the very least you could take the concept itself to an art form and try making something meaningful instead of covering up the tracks of the fact that you shot the photo on an 8MP phone camera.

This is definitely not new though, especially in cinema; have you seen the film Chronicle? It looks like it was shot with old camcorders for the storytelling, but in fact everything was shot on an ALEXA (top-of-the-line $80k digital film camera) and then dumbed down in post for maximum control of how they wanted it to look bad. This is often done with "found footage" films.

I hope the "instagram" fad passes quickly

El Duderino wrote in post #15275998
It makes poorly lit cell phone pictures look a lot better. I like using some of the lomo presets on mine (little photo for android)

LOL!

When looking at some sites like FB and instagram, etc... it is almost unbelievable to see such poorly taken photos. I mean what are people thinking when posting a photo that is almost unrecognizable. I know some have sentimental value and may be the only photo of that person, but...