If you have spent any time scrolling through the film photography side of Instagram or Pinterest lately, you have definitely seen it. Those impossibly soft, light, and airy photographs. The greens look like mint, the reds look like soft peach, and the sky is a stunning wash of pale blue. It almost looks more like a watercolor painting than a photograph.

For a long time when I first started shooting film, I could not figure out how people were getting that fine art, pastel look. I would shoot the exact same film stocks they were using, taking pictures of the exact same landscapes or portraits, and my scans would come back looking dark, contrast-heavy, and kind of muddy. I figured they were just spending hours editing their film scans.

But the real secret to hitting those gorgeous, pastel tones actually happens in the camera before you even press the shutter. It all comes down to one fundamental trick: accidentally on purpose overexposing your color negative film.

Why Film Actually Looks Better When You Overexpose It

If you started out taking photos on a digital camera or your smartphone, the idea of intentionally letting too much light into your camera feels completely wrong. In the digital world, overexposing is basically a crime. If you blow out your highlights on a digital sensor, that information is gone forever. You get pure white patches that can never be recovered.

Color negative film is an entirely different beast. Unlike digital sensors, film eats light for breakfast. Film stocks like Kodak Portra, Fuji Pro 400H (rest in peace), and even cheaper options like Kodak Gold have incredible "exposure latitude." Latitude is just a fancy way of saying the film is super forgiving.

When you shoot color negative film, the shadows are usually the first thing to lose detail and get grainy. By overexposing the film, you are flooding those shadows with plenty of light, getting rid of the muddy grain and smoothing out the image. Meanwhile, the highlights are robust enough to handle the extra light without blowing out entirely. The result is a flatter, softer image with lower contrast and those beautiful, muted pastel color shifts.

How to Overexpose on Purpose (Taking the Scary Out of the Math)

The concept is easy, but actually tricking your camera into doing it can feel a little weird the first few times. There are basically two easy ways to overexpose your film, depending on what kind of camera you are shooting with.

Method 1: Lie to your camera's ISO dial.
If you are shooting a camera with an internal light meter and a manual ISO dial, all you have to do is tell the camera you are using a slower film than you actually have. For example, if you load a roll of Kodak Portra 400 into your camera, do not set the ISO dial to 400. Set it to 200. Setting it to 200 tells your camera's light meter, "Hey, this film needs twice as much light as normal." Your camera will then automatically adjust its meter readings to let in one extra stop of light. You just shoot the roll completely normally from there, and you will get perfectly overexposed negatives.

Method 2: Use the exposure compensation dial.
If you have a slightly more modern film camera that reads the DX code off the film canister automatically (meaning you cannot manually change the ISO), look for the exposure compensation dial. It is usually marked with "+1, +2, -1, -2" and so on. Just pop that dial over to +1. The camera will read the ISO correctly, but it will intentionally overexpose every single shot by one stop.

Metering for the Shadows

Dialing in the extra stop of light is only half the battle. The other half is pointing your camera at the right thing when you check your exposure. If you want that light and airy fine art look, especially for portraits, you need to meter for the shadows.

If you just point your camera at a person standing against a bright sky, the camera will see all that bright sky and underexpose the subject, leaving their face dark. Instead, get up close to your subject, point the camera at the darker parts of their outfit or the shadowed side of their face, and lock in your exposure settings based on that. When you combine metering for the shadows with rating your film at +1 stop of overexposure, the skin tones become incredibly luminous, creamy, and soft.

The Best Film Stocks for Pastel Tones

While you can overexpose basically any color negative film, certain stocks really shine when you flood them with light.

• Kodak Portra 400: This is the gold standard for the pastel look. Portra handles overexposure better than almost anything else on the market. Shooting Portra 400 at ISO 200 (one stop over) gives incredibly soft skin tones and sweet, warm hues. You can even shoot it at ISO 100 for a really washed-out, dreamy look in harsh midday light.
• Kodak Gold 200: Gold tends to run very warm and yellow. When you shoot it at ISO 100, the contrast drops, and those intense yellows turn into really beautiful, soft peaches and golds. It is my favorite budget option for summer days.
• FujiFilm C200 or Superia: Kodak leans warm, but Fuji leans cool. If you overexpose Fuji film by a stop, you will get those highly sought-after mint greens, soft magentas, and very clean, icy blues in the sky.

A really quick warning: Everything I have mentioned here applies strictly to color negative film. If you are shooting slide film (like Ektachrome or Provia), absolutely do not overexpose it. Slide film acts a lot more like a digital sensor. If you overexpose slide film, you will ruin your photos. Always shoot slide film at its exact box speed.

The Final Step: Talk to Your Lab

This part is crucial and often skipped. Overexposing your film creates a physically thicker, denser negative. When the scanner at the film lab looks at a dense negative, its automatic software usually tries to "correct" it by bringing the contrast back up and making the image darker to compensate.

If you don't communicate with your lab, they might "fix" your intentional overexposure, leaving you with standard-looking photos. When you drop off your rolls, just add a little note or tell the lab tech: "I overexposed this one stop for a soft, pastel look. Please scan for the highlights and keep it light and airy." A good film lab will know exactly what you mean, and they will adjust their scanning profiles to preserve those beautiful soft tones.

Getting the Right Setup

You really don't need a painfully expensive medium format setup to get this look. Any reliable camera that lets you control your exposure manually or tweak the ISO settings will let you chase these dreamy pastel tones all summer long. If your current point-and-shoot doesn't let you override the settings, it might be time to pick up something that gives you a bit more creative control.

If you're ready to start experimenting with manual exposures, I highly suggest grabbing one of the classic SLR cameras. They give you full control over shutter speed and aperture, making shadow-metering a breeze. And if you're shooting an older, fully mechanical camera without a built-in meter, investing in a reliable standalone light meter is the absolute best way to ensure you hit that +1 overexposure accurately every single time.

Load up a fresh roll, turn that ISO dial down a notch, and go see what a little extra light can do for your photos. Once you see your first properly overexposed scans come back from the lab, you honestly might never shoot at box speed again.