Aariz Hussain
3 min readAug 7, 2022

What Is The Sepia Color Used For — A Compact Guide

Photo by Travis Blessing on Unsplash

Have you ever found an antique picture of your family? A picture in which your parents were children and your grandparents looked young.

If yes, what things did you note in those pictures? Apart from the black and white colour, you would have observed a brownish golden tint to those photos. Well, that brownish tint in old photographs is called Sepia.

4 Uses of Sepia Filters in Photography

As you might have guessed, sepia colour is commonly used in photography and picture editing. Almost all mobile cameras have a built-in sepia filter in them. Hence, proving the popularity of the filter. Even 3rd party camera applications and editing softwares like Snapchat, B212, Picsart and Adobe PS have a built-in Sepia filter. But why is this filter so common and popular?

Vintage Look

Whenever do you want to create an old picture to tell a story or simply for your Instagram post, what can be a better choice than the warm tint of Sepia? The antique touch to your modern photo with a Sepia filter can tell the story so much better than the combination of some mere words.

Warm Intensity

With certain combinations, Sepia can rock the warm intensity look for your pictures. Try this filter with tones of brown, copper, grey, purple or pink to make the perfect use of the filter.

Lower the Tone

Sepia can be a perfect choice to tone down bright magentas and vividly blue colours. As discussed before, pictures can tell a story without words. By toning down the photo to an optimum level, you can be more precise with the story your image represents.

Mysterious Mood

With a sepia filter, you can turn the mood of a picture from joyful and happy to mysterious. If you want to give mysterious vibes to a photo, the sepia filter is always a top choice in the list.

3 Best Filter Combinations for Sepia

Although we understand the importance of sepia colour, we cannot ignore the fantastic combination of other filters that can enhance the story in your picture.

Warm Amber

Warm amber can be a perfect choice to highlight the yellow colour in your pictures and give it a bright and exposed effect in your image.

Twilight

Twilight plus sepia can enhance the golden effect of the picture while giving it a natural and subtle look.

Cinerama

Cinerama can be an outcast on this list. It is the only filter that gives a cool effect to the picture. You can combine the cool effect of Cinerama and the warm effect of sepia to provide the image with a relatively modern look.

Conclusion — Picture Speaks Louder Than Words

Sometimes, a single picture can tell a story that a thousand words cannot. The visual message in the image needs to be clear to give the audience an explicit, straightforward and uninterrupted message. Hence, to make that message clearer, we should use a combination of filters, hues, and tones to deliver the story the picture intends to give.

Now we know what filter to use to give the picture a warm, antique, and mysterious look!