Sepia · 60s slide · 70s print · Polaroid · VHS
Vintage photo filter — give any photo a real film look
Upload a photo and pick an era. The AI repaints the colour, contrast, grain and print of that time — a 1920s sepia card, a 1960s colour slide, a 1970s print, a Polaroid or a VHS still — and keeps the people and the scene.
- 8 film looks by era
- Keeps faces and the scene
- One-click Polaroid look
- No watermark
Updated by the Kenerate AI team
On this page
Quick answer
What filter makes pictures look vintage?
A photo looks vintage when four things match an old film process: a colour cast (sepia brown, 70s orange, faded cyan), lifted blacks and soft contrast, film grain, and the print itself — a white Polaroid frame, a deckled border, a VHS scanline. Kenerate's vintage photo filter opens the image editor with a 1970s film-print instruction filled in; add your photo, or swap the words for sepia, a 1960s slide or a VHS still. For a one-click instant-film look, AI Filter has a Polaroid style.
Key facts
- Works on
- Any photo you have the right to edit
- What changes
- Colour, contrast, grain, print or frame
- Keeps
- People, faces, poses, the scene
- Looks covered
- Sepia, B&W print, 60s slide, 70s print, Polaroid, VHS, 90s flash, film noir
- One-click looks
- Polaroid, Film Noir, Golden Hour in AI Filter
- Default model
- Qwen Image 3.0 (free plan)
- Watermark
- None
Looks by era
Vintage looks by era, and the words that make them
Paste the prompt words into the filter in place of the 1970s line. Keep the last sentence about faces and composition.
| Look | Era | What gives it away | Prompt words |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sepia print | c. 1880s–1920s | Brown monotone, soft focus, faded edges, card or paper texture | an antique sepia photograph: warm brown monotone, soft focus, faded vignette edges, aged paper texture with fine creases |
| Black-and-white print | c. 1930s–1950s | Rich greys, deep blacks, fine grain, white deckled border | a 1950s black-and-white silver print with fine grain, deep blacks and a white deckled border |
| Kodachrome-style slide | 1950s–1960s | Saturated reds and deep blues, strong contrast, crisp fine grain | a 1960s Kodachrome-style colour slide: saturated reds, deep blues, rich contrast, fine grain |
| 70s faded print | 1970s | Warm yellow-orange cast, lifted blacks, soft grain, a light leak | a 1970s film print: warm faded colours, yellow-orange cast, lifted blacks, soft grain, faint light leak |
| Polaroid instant | Instant film | White frame with a wide bottom strip, flash, faded warm tones | an instant Polaroid snapshot: white frame border, soft flash lighting, slightly faded warm tones, light leaks |
| VHS still | 1980s–1990s | Scanlines, colour bleed, tracking noise, a camcorder timestamp | a paused 1980s VHS camcorder frame: scanlines, colour bleed, soft tracking noise, a white timestamp in the corner |
| 90s point-and-shoot | 1990s | Hard direct flash, dark background, orange date stamp | a 1990s point-and-shoot film photo: hard direct flash, dark background, visible grain, orange date stamp in the corner |
| Film noir still | 1940s cinema | High-contrast black and white, hard shadows, venetian-blind light | a 1940s film noir still: high-contrast black and white, hard shadows, venetian-blind light, fine grain |
How to
How to use the vintage photo filter
- Time needed
- Steps
- 4 steps
Step 1
Open the vintage filter
Press “Add your photo”. Image Studio opens with a 1970s film-print instruction in the prompt box. Sign in free for starter credits.
Step 2
Upload your photo
Add the photo you want to age — a portrait, a street scene, a holiday snap.
Step 3
Pick the era
Keep the 1970s print, or replace the first sentence with the prompt words for sepia, a 60s slide, a Polaroid or a VHS still from the table.
Step 4
Create and download
Press Create, compare two takes, and download the one you like without a watermark.
See it in the app
Open Edit Studio and upload an image, or pick one from your history.
Watch the tour · 1:23
Prompts, styles, references, edit, Arena & chat
Chapters
Tips
Make it look old, not just orange
What separates a believable film look from a colour tint.
Name the era and the medium — “1960s colour slide” beats “vintage”.
Ask for lifted, faded blacks; pure black shadows read as a modern photo.
Add grain and one print detail: a deckled border, a Polaroid frame, a date stamp.
Modern things give the game away — ask to keep them, or remove a phone or logo in a second edit.
Want a date stamp or caption? Pick GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst, which is tagged for text rendering.
Run it twice: film looks vary from take to take, and the second is often more natural.
Models
Models for vintage edits
What each model is good at. Open any one straight in the generator.
- Free plan
Alibaba
Qwen Image 3.0
- Reference images
- Up to 3
- Output
- 1K or 2K
Open Qwen Image 3.0Best for
Default here · free plan
ByteDance
Seedream 5.0 Pro
- Reference images
- Up to 10
- Output
- Up to 2K
Open Seedream 5.0 ProBest for
Painterly and cinematic looks
OpenAI
GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst
- Reference images
- Up to 16
- Output
- 1K to 4K
Open GPT Image 2.5 SunburstBest for
Date stamps and handwritten captions
Google
Nano Banana 2.1
Kenerate tool
AI Filter · Polaroid look
- Reference images
- 1 photo
Open AI Filter · Polaroid lookBest for
One click, no prompt: frame, flash and faded tones
FAQ
Vintage Photo Filter questions
8 questions
What filter makes pictures look vintage?
Any filter that copies an old film process: a colour cast (sepia, 70s orange, faded cyan), lifted blacks and softer contrast, film grain, and an old print format such as a white Polaroid frame or a deckled border. An AI vintage filter applies all four from a sentence — for example “a 1970s film print: warm faded colours, lifted blacks, soft grain” — instead of a fixed preset.
Link to this answerIs there a free vintage photo filter?
Yes, to start. A new Kenerate account gets free starter credits, and Qwen Image 3.0, the default model here, is on the free plan; AI Filter's Polaroid look also runs on Qwen Image 3 by default. Other models use credits from a one-time pack with no subscription. Results download without a watermark.
Link to this answerHow do I make a photo look like it's from the 70s?
Ask for the 1970s print in words: warm faded colours with a yellow-orange cast, lifted blacks, soft grain and a faint light leak, and keep the people and composition the same. That's the instruction the filter opens with. For a 70s scene from scratch, use the Vintage 70s style in Image Studio's style list instead.
Link to this answerHow do I make a photo look like a Polaroid?
Open AI Filter with the Polaroid look picked and add your photo: it adds a white instant-film frame, soft flash lighting, faded warm tones, light leaks and a handwritten caption on the bottom strip, and keeps the same person and pose. Or paste the Polaroid prompt words from the table into the vintage filter.
Link to this answerWhat is the Kodachrome look?
Kodachrome was Kodak's colour film, sold from 1935 until Kodak ended production in June 2009; the last lab to develop it was Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, Kansas. It's remembered for saturated reds, deep blues and strong contrast. Prompt “a 1960s Kodachrome-style colour slide” to get that look; it's a style, not real Kodachrome chemistry.
Link to this answerWill the AI change faces or details?
It's told not to, but an AI filter redraws the picture rather than tinting pixels, so small details such as text on signs or the exact shape of a hand can shift. Run it again if a face changes. If you need every pixel kept, a classic colour preset in a photo app is the safer tool.
Link to this answerCan I make a video look like VHS?
Yes, in Video Studio: add the “Vintage 1980s VHS” tag to a video prompt and it adds tape artefacts, tracking glitches and warm scanlines. For a single still, use the VHS prompt words from the table in this filter.
Link to this answerCan I pass an AI-aged photo off as a real old photo?
Don't. Use vintage looks for art, social posts and mood, and say the effect is AI when it matters — in family archives, journalism or anything people may take as a historical record. Only edit photos you took or have permission to use.
Link to this answerIn depth
Vintage Photo Filter, explained
What works, what to avoid, and how to pick a model.
On this page
AI vintage filter vs a classic preset
A classic vintage preset is a fixed colour curve plus a grain overlay: fast, exact, and the same on every photo. An AI vintage filter reads the scene and repaints it — it can add a Polaroid frame, a period colour palette, a date stamp or VHS scanlines from one sentence, and it adapts to each photo. The trade-off is that it redraws, so check small details.
The four ingredients of an old photo
Every era is a mix of the same four things, set differently:
- Colour cast: brown for sepia, orange-yellow for 70s prints, cyan-green for faded 80s colour.
- Contrast: old prints have lifted, milky blacks; slides and film noir have deep ones.
- Grain: fine for slow slide film, heavy for fast film and cheap cameras.
- The print: card stock, a deckled border, a Polaroid frame, a VHS overlay or a date stamp.
Going the other way
Have a real old photo that's faded or scratched? That's restoration, not a filter: use photo restoration to repair it and colorize photo to bring back colour.