Today's digital photographs are being heavily "filtered." By simple clicks on mobile apps like Hipstamatic and Instagram, users can easily apply digital filters to their pictures to create effects such as faux-vintage and light leaks. To understand the potential impacts of photo filters, we conducted an online experiment and investigated how the use of the black-and-white and film-style photo filters changed viewers' perceptions and descriptions of photographs. We found that photo filters substantially increased viewers' perceived temporal distances to photographs. Participants also tended to describe analogue-style photos more interpretively and tentatively than unfiltered ones, indicating an increase in construal levels. We suggest that the widely used photo filter is not just a tool to change aesthetics; it also adds a layer of history, meaning, and defamiliarization to photographs, allowing users to construct a mental distance in images that deviates from everyday experiences. We offer insights into the psychology of visual styles and implications for designing filter apps and photo-sharing platforms. Full article: https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3025810

1. Time Travel with One Click:
Effects of Digital Filters on Perceptions of Photographs
Yilang Peng
University of Pennsylvania

2. VSCO Instagram
Snapseed Hipstamatic

3. How do analogue-style digital filters change
our perceptions of photographs?

4. Visual appeal
Instagram
(Redi & Povoa, 2014)
Flickr
(Bakhshi et al, 2015)
21%
+views
45%
+comments

5. Theoretical
framework

6. Far away
Now, here, me, reality
Hypothetical, counterfactual, unlikely
Other people
Past or future
Construal level theory

7. 1826/27
Nicéphore Niépce
1826/27
Dorothea Lange
1936
William Eggleston
1973
Ernst Hass
1969
Dominick Reuter
2015
Burhan Ozbilici
2016
Black-and-white Color film Digital
1960s-70s 1990s-2000s

8. Photo filters
(B&W, film-style)
Temporal
distance
Spatial distance
H1
H2

9. Concrete
Descriptive
Detailed
…
Abstract
Interpretative
General
…

10. 溪⼭清远图（局部）
夏圭 南宋
Pure and Remote View of Streams and Mountains (Part)
Xia Gui, Southern Song Dynasty

11. Low construal level
New York City is a large city
with five boroughs and about
18 million people.
High construal level
New York’s lights,
shimmering in the foggy sky,
remind me of outer space.
(Alter & Oppenheimer, 2008)

12. Defamiliarization
“The technique of art is to
make objects ‘unfamiliar,’ to
make forms difficult, to
increase the difficulty and
length of perception
because the process of
perception is an aesthetic
end in itself and must be
prolonged.”
Art as Device, Viktor
Shklovsky, 1917

14. Photo filters
(B&W, film-style)
Temporal
distance
Spatial distance
Interpretation (vs.
descriptions)
H1
H2
H3

15. Photo filters
(B&W, film-style)
Temporal
distance
Spatial distance
Interpretation (vs.
descriptions)
H1
H2
H3
Visual appeal
RQ1

16. Photo filters
(B&W, film-style)
Temporal
distance
Spatial distance
Interpretation (vs.
descriptions)
H1
H2
H3
Visual appeal
RQ1
Age
Photographic
knowledge
RQ2

17. Method

18. Original
(N = 72)
Film-style
(N = 65)
B&W
(N = 63)
…
…
…
200
participants
10 photos

19. Criteria of sampling images
Related to a news event or a distant
place.
Have people with actions and a
moderate amount of details.

20. Results

21. Original
Film***
B&W***
Temporal distance
“In which year do you think the
photo was taken?”
Both B&W (d = 1.31) and film-
style (d = 0.86) filters increased
perceived temporal distances.

22. Original
Film
B&W
Spatial distance
“How far away do you think
the photo was taken from
where you are now?”
No effects.

23. Level of interpretation
“Please describe the photo in a
few sentences.”
Number of tentative words used
(e.g., maybe, or, perhaps)
The film-style filter led
participants to describe
photographs more
interpretatively and tentatively
(d = 0.34).
Original
Film*
B&W

24. A helicopter has just dropped of US
troops in the desert. The soldiers
form a circle on the ground with
their guns drawn pointing outwards.
Their packs besides them.
Soldiers seem to be preparing for
some type of battle or stand down.
They all have their guns raised
which means the area they are in
probably holds some serious
enemies.

25. A group of children smile up at the
camera with their hands
outstretched.
A group of African children. They
appear rather healthy and vibrant.
It appears that they are playing a
game, most likely football with a
home made ball.

26. Visual appeal
The use of film-style filter
decreased visual appeal (d
= 0.33), which was
approaching statistical
significance.
Original
Film+
B&W

27. Age
Original
Film
B&W
The effects of film-style filter on
perceived temporal distance were
stronger among young people.
Older people particularly
disliked the film-style filter.

28. Photographic knowledge
Original
Film
B&W
In B&W condition, people with less
photographic knowledge became
more tentative, while people with
more knowledge became less
tentative.
Less photographically
knowledgeable people
disliked the film-style filter.

29. Key results
B&W and film-style filters ↗ perceptions of temporal distance.
Film-style filter ↗ more tentativeness and interpretation.
Age and photographic knowledge moderate the effects of photo
filters.
Film-style filter ↘ visual appeal (particularly among older and
less photographically knowledgeable people).

30. VSCO Cam, “M4”
Implications

31. Design filters for different
scenarios and users

32. Preview effects of photo filters

33. PicsArt
Other filters
Prisma

34. Yilang Peng
Ph.D. candidate
ypeng@asc.upenn.edu
Annenberg School of Communication
University of Pennsylvania
Thank
you