I think it may be the level of “film grain”, as well as a bit of glow around the buildings in the sky, both are a bit too high admittedly, I honestly just liked the look of the shot with the added grain and I’ve just started getting into photo editing so I’m still not too great at it. I probably should’ve put some sort of disclaimer in the description that it was edited rather than an actual film photo. I do have some old 35mm point and shoots and even an early 80s ricoh SLR I just got, but haven’t gotten to use them quite just yet, my first film roll is supposed to come in in a few days so I should hopefully have some actual scanned film photos coming in a couple months or so.
When I started using Lightroom, I was the same. Lots of things looked so cool to me, largely due to the novelty, and I cranked up a lot of settings much higher than they needed to be. Eventually, that novelty of fake grain and various filters wears off, and you start feeling like your pictures don’t need “so much of this” or deciding that just cause something looks cool doesn’t mean you think it looks good after all. After just a few months, I was already looking back on previous edits and thinking, “Yikes.” It’s just part of the journey.
![Sin City [OC]](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/2b321cef-a71a-411c-b471-cb7b961f1517.jpeg){kind=link}
How can you tell it’s a filter vs actual film?
I think it may be the level of “film grain”, as well as a bit of glow around the buildings in the sky, both are a bit too high admittedly, I honestly just liked the look of the shot with the added grain and I’ve just started getting into photo editing so I’m still not too great at it. I probably should’ve put some sort of disclaimer in the description that it was edited rather than an actual film photo. I do have some old 35mm point and shoots and even an early 80s ricoh SLR I just got, but haven’t gotten to use them quite just yet, my first film roll is supposed to come in in a few days so I should hopefully have some actual scanned film photos coming in a couple months or so.
When I started using Lightroom, I was the same. Lots of things looked so cool to me, largely due to the novelty, and I cranked up a lot of settings much higher than they needed to be. Eventually, that novelty of fake grain and various filters wears off, and you start feeling like your pictures don’t need “so much of this” or deciding that just cause something looks cool doesn’t mean you think it looks good after all. After just a few months, I was already looking back on previous edits and thinking, “Yikes.” It’s just part of the journey.