What are the most popular colors in photographs? That’s a question film photography giant Lomography not only asked, but also analyzed across 15 years of data – and the findings illustrate a curious trend.
Lomography analyzed images shared by its community from 2010 to 2025, plotted the most dominant colors in the photographs for each year, and shared the results in a recent blog post. The chart makes a gradual change in colors obvious: bold colors are shrinking while monochrome tones make up a majority of images.
In the earliest data from 2010, blacks, whites, and grays take up a majority of the colors, which makes sense as those tones will be part of both black and white and color films. A significant portion of the hues in 2010 are still vibrant colors. By 2025, however, those colors take up a far smaller section of the chart.
Looking at images exclusively from the Lomography Community doesn’t necessarily indicate trends across photography as a whole, as Lomography’s community skews heavily towards analog photography. But the data shows an interesting shift among the film community and an increase in black and white and a decrease in bold colors.
Lomography has a few theories for why black and white is becoming a favorite among film photographers. The first theory is in the film labs themselves, which have started using more autocorrections when scanning film, which can create less vivid colors than using a profile designed for a specific film emulsion. Instant film with less saturated colors may have played a role as well, Lomography theorizes.
Another potential culprit is that modern films tend to be more neutral, while black and white stocks like Ilford HP5 Plus have become more popular. As the cost of film increased, the lower cost of black and white film may have also played a role.
When I loaded film into my first analog SLR, I also reached for black and white film, for two key reasons. One, black and white just felt more nostalgic as it existed long before color film. But I thought black and white may be easier to start with, as predicting how a photograph with only black, white, and gray would look felt less daunting than predicting how a photograph with every possible color would look.
The other curious trend I noted in Lomography’s analysis was that, in 2010, warm colors made up a good portion of the hues on the chart. But by 2025, the cooler blues and purples seem to make up a larger percentage than oranges and yellows.
Lomography’s final take? “We’re not mad about this trend at all,” the company wrote. “Watching the colors that spark our Lomographers’ creativity and seeing how they’ve shifted over time is fascinating. Because here’s the beauty of film photography: there are no right answers. Just the freedom to follow your mood and let your wild side shine, whatever shade it comes in.”
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