MemoryWorks: VHS v1.0

Description

There was something special about old VHS tapes.

The soft image, faded colors, subtle noise, tracking imperfections, and that unmistakable analog atmosphere turned ordinary moments into memories. Digital cameras strive for perfection—but memories were never perfect.

MemoryWorks: VHS recreates that authentic late 80s, 90s, and early 2000s home-video aesthetic while preserving natural lighting and realistic human features. Instead of overwhelming your images with artificial effects, this LoRA introduces the subtle imperfections that made VHS recordings feel warm, lived-in, and timeless.

This is an experimental release in the MemoryWorks series, trained on 20 carefully curated high-quality images. The primary goal was to explore how far a small, highly curated dataset could push an authentic VHS aesthetic while maintaining realistic subjects. Although the results are promising, there are still a few limitations that I plan to address in future updates.

Recommended Settings

Krea 2 RAW

• Sampler: Euler

• Scheduler: Beta / Normal

• LoRA Strength: 0.8 – 1.0

Krea 2 Turbo

During testing, I noticed that I likely made a mistake somewhere during training. Unlike Krea 2 RAW, Krea 2 Turbo requires significantly higher LoRA strength before the VHS style becomes fully visible.

Recommended Settings

• Sampler: Euler

• Scheduler: Beta

• LoRA Strength: 0.9 – 3.0

• LoRA Clip Strength: 3.0 – 4.0

This behavior is not intentional, and I will definitely fix and optimize it in the next version of MemoryWorks: VHS so the model performs consistently at lower strengths across both Krea 2 RAW and Krea 2 Turbo.

Prompting Guide

This LoRA has not been trained with any trigger words, so there are no mandatory activation tokens.

However, using common analog/VHS-related phrases greatly helps reinforce the intended aesthetic. I recommend including some of the following terms naturally in your prompts:

Core Style Prefixes

• A low-resolution VHS style photo taken with an old camera from the 2000s era.

• An analog video capture from an old camcorder, 2000s era.

Texture & VHS Effects

• interlaced scan lines

• horizontal video tracking lines

• NTSC signal fields

• chromatic aberration fringing

• soft optical lens blur

• NTSC color bleeding

• heavy analog color grain

• thick video noise floor

• visible digital noise in the shadows

Lighting

• harsh direct built-in camera flash

• cool blue-white streetlight glare

• blooming fluorescent overhead lighting

• heavy light bloom

Environment

• candid atmosphere

• cluttered background

• flat overcast daytime sky

• dimly lit environment

Words to Avoid

To prevent the base model from overpowering the LoRA, it's recommended to avoid modern "quality enhancement" keywords such as:

• hyper-realistic

• photorealistic

• 4K / 8K

• highly detailed

• sharp focus

• cinematic

• modern electric vehicle

• iPhone

• sleek glass high-rise

• modern luxury apartment

• LED lights

• studio lighting

• global illumination

• raytraced textures

Thank you for checking out MemoryWorks: VHS. v1.0

As this is an experimental release, your feedback is incredibly valuable. If you discover strengths, prompts, or workflows that produce great results, I'd love to hear about them. Every release in the MemoryWorks series is a step toward creating even more authentic analog aesthetics. 📼

MemoryWorks: VHS v1.1

Description

There was something special about old VHS tapes.

The soft image, faded colors, subtle noise, tracking imperfections, and that unmistakable analog atmosphere turned ordinary moments into memories. Digital cameras strive for perfection—but memories were never perfect.

MemoryWorks: VHS recreates the authentic late 80s, 90s, and early 2000s home-video aesthetic while preserving natural lighting and realistic scenes. Rather than relying on heavy post-processing effects, this LoRA focuses on recreating the subtle analog imperfections that made old camcorder footage feel warm, personal, and timeless.

What's New in v1.1

This update is a major improvement over the initial experimental release.

The training dataset has been expanded from 20 to 60 carefully curated high-quality images, allowing the LoRA to better understand VHS characteristics while producing more consistent generations. The overall nostalgic atmosphere has been significantly refined, with improved analog tape textures, more authentic color science, stronger VHS artifacts, and a richer retro feeling throughout generated scenes.

The primary focus of this version is creating believable environments that genuinely feel like they were captured on an old VHS camcorder.

Whether you're generating family memories, childhood moments, vintage portraits, abandoned places, retro cars, or cinematic home-video scenes, MemoryWorks: VHS aims to recreate the imperfect beauty of analog memories.

"Some memories aren't meant to be perfectly sharp—they're meant to feel real."

Current Limitations

Like every model in the MemoryWorks series, this project is still evolving.

Current known limitations include:

• Female faces and hairstyles have limited variety.

• Male subjects are not yet trained as consistently as desired.

• Character diversity can still be improved.

However, the overall scene composition, nostalgic atmosphere, background rendering, and VHS aesthetic perform significantly better than the previous version.

These areas will continue to be refined in future updates as the MemoryWorks series grows.

Recommended Settings

Krea 2 RAW

• Sampler: Euler

• Scheduler: Beta / Normal

• LoRA Strength: 0.8–1.2

Krea 2 Turbo

• Sampler: Euler

• Scheduler: Beta

• LoRA Strength: 1.0–1.5
  (my personal favorite strength is 1.5)

• LoRA Clip Strength: 3.0–4.0

Prompting Guide

This LoRA does not require any trigger words.

For the strongest VHS aesthetic, it is recommended to naturally include phrases such as:

Core Style

• A low-resolution ,vhs style,photo taken with an old camera from the 2000s era.

• An analog video capture from an old camcorder, 2000s era.

VHS Texture

• interlaced scan lines

• horizontal video tracking lines

• NTSC signal fields

• chromatic aberration fringing

• soft optical lens blur

• NTSC color bleeding

• heavy analog color grain

• thick video noise floor

• visible digital noise in the shadows

Lighting

• harsh direct built-in camera flash

• cool blue-white streetlight glare

• blooming fluorescent overhead lighting

• heavy light bloom

Environment

• candid atmosphere

• cluttered background

• flat overcast daytime sky

• dimly lit environment

Avoid modern quality-enhancing keywords such as photorealistic, hyper-realistic, 4K, 8K, sharp focus, studio lighting, global illumination, and similar terms, as they may reduce the intended analog appearance.