Film recipes that mimic the look of colour prints and instant film
There’s a particular quality to a colour print — the slightly shifted whites, the way shadows lift rather than going fully black, the characteristic colour balance of C-41 chemistry. These recipes try to replicate that quality, producing images that look like they came from a processing lab rather than a digital camera.
Some are inspired by instant films like Polaroid and Instax; others go for a more general lab print feel. What they share is a preference for lifted shadows, reduced sharpness and colour balances that sit just slightly off neutral in the way analogue prints always did.
A shortlist of 40 print-like recipes drawn from across the site and the Film Recipes App, ranked by user popularity and print character. App-only recipes are included and labelled — the full app library runs to over 800 recipes, with a strong collection of analogue-inspired looks that aren’t available on the site.
Print-Like Film Simulation Recipes
These are the highest-rated recipes from the site and app combined. There are a further 16 recipes in this category exclusively in the Film Recipes App — browse them alongside the full library of 800+ recipes on iOS and Android.