# Why do older pictures look so bad (yellowish, drab).

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-older-pictures-look-so-bad-yellowish-drab/610595>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 25, 2012, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-older-pictures-look-so-bad-yellowish-drab/610595 "2012-01-25T14:24:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\
**Post date:** [January 26, 2012, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-older-pictures-look-so-bad-yellowish-drab/610595/21 "2012-01-26T17:30:45Z")

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Here is a picture from the early eighties. The left is a scanned print, while the right is scanned from the negative. It is pretty easy to tell how much the print has faded.

[https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/klwoQAKziafvrYh5Bhga5Qaj1VUwbzvphXbPkSq6naE?feat=directlink](https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/klwoQAKziafvrYh5Bhga5Qaj1VUwbzvphXbPkSq6naE?feat=directlink)

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