Old thread, I know, but I gave VSCO a try lately and wanted to say a few things. First, VSCO keys is incredible and can be used with or without VSCO Film Packs. I'll never use LR without VSCO Keys again haha.
I edited an entire wedding last week with VSCO Film 01. The wedding was all outdoors. Everything was pretty satisfactory, definitely takes finessing, but I was impressed. The look was subtle and dreamy, I liked it.
The wedding I'm editing right now is EXTREMELY high end with 500 guests, everyone in tuxes, and you guessed it, all indoors. Turns out VSCO doesn't take kindly to sharp, contrasty, punchy images. The D810 is a dream camera for these type of weddings. Brilliant detail, rich blacks, insane sharpness, and perfectly saturated colors. Take all those things and run them through VSCO and you kinda get barf.
But I'm still learning, maybe I'll get the hang of it.
ohsnaphappy wrote:
Old thread, I know, but I gave VSCO a try lately and wanted to say a few things. First, VSCO keys is incredible and can be used with or without VSCO Film Packs. I'll never use LR without VSCO Keys again haha.
I edited an entire wedding last week with VSCO Film 01. The wedding was all outdoors. Everything was pretty satisfactory, definitely takes finessing, but I was impressed. The look was subtle and dreamy, I liked it.
The wedding I'm editing right now is EXTREMELY high end with 500 guests, everyone in tuxes, and you guessed it, all indoors. Turns out VSCO doesn't take kindly to sharp, contrasty, punchy images. The D810 is a dream camera for these type of weddings. Brilliant detail, rich blacks, insane sharpness, and perfectly saturated colors. Take all those things and run them through VSCO and you kinda get barf.
But I'm still learning, maybe I'll get the hang of it. ...Show more →
Do you have all of the VSCO packs? Try out some of the Velvia presets...they tend to work better with more punchy images
If anyone needs help with VSCO hit me up. I actually spend a good amount of time making/tweaking VSCO presets for people. Same goes for any preset really (mastin lab, red tree, replichrome, etc.)
For any preset you buy or use, you cant just click it and call it a day. You need some adjustment to it. What I did was create my own. I have some I paid for and some I created. What I did was took the ones I paid for, make adjustments to make them work for my shooting style. Then saved them as new presets. Now when I use them I get my look from the presets I purchased and then need just minimal tweaks for each photo.
Presets save time but they are not a one click save all.
But Jeremy told me it was..."nail it with one click"
Celebrity photographer Jeremy Cowart states, "This was legit. I couldn’t believe how easily I could get true, real film looks from my Canon 5D MarkII files. I’ve tried before to create my own "film" look from my digital files, but let’s be honest. I never "nailed" it. Well, now I can nail it with one click. It’s ridiculous just how easy it is for me now."
paparazzinick wrote:
For any preset you buy or use, you cant just click it and call it a day. You need some adjustment to it. What I did was create my own. I have some I paid for and some I created. What I did was took the ones I paid for, make adjustments to make them work for my shooting style. Then saved them as new presets. Now when I use them I get my look from the presets I purchased and then need just minimal tweaks for each photo.
Presets save time but they are not a one click save all.
jasonhupe wrote:
....Also with the MK III files I am finding bad light + VSCO= terrible. Much better results with using Canon's faithful or starndard Profile. Shadows seem to always get crushed with the MK III files as well, pulling the blacks back to +40 on a regular basis with contrasty scenes.
Do you find yourself often having to boost the exposure after applying a VSCO preset? Maybe my exposures are too dark to start with but after applying a VSCO preset I end up having enhance by 1/2 or a full stop.
Littleguy wrote:
But Jeremy told me it was..."nail it with one click"
Celebrity photographer Jeremy Cowart states, "This was legit. I couldn’t believe how easily I could get true, real film looks from my Canon 5D MarkII files. I’ve tried before to create my own "film" look from my digital files, but let’s be honest. I never "nailed" it. Well, now I can nail it with one click. It’s ridiculous just how easy it is for me now."
well if that's how you wanna roll then go ahead. My clients pay me good money for their photos. So I like to give them what they pay for. One click and done just doesn't cut it.
AdamWold wrote:
Do you find yourself often having to boost the exposure after applying a VSCO preset? Maybe my exposures are too dark to start with but after applying a VSCO preset I end up having enhance by 1/2 or a full stop.
I've found that VSCO and Replichrome react just like real film. When shooting film like Portra or 400H, most concur that you're going to want to over expose for 1-2 stops. I like to shoot +3 stops with most of my film. When I process digital files I am much happier when I start over-exposing in LR
rondphoto wrote:
I'm a Kodak Portra 160 NC + and call it a day kind of guy. Actually, then I run another action that removes grain and enables profile corrections.
Why not just tweak your Portra 160 NC + profile to have no grain?
I'm also not a fan of digitally adding grain to color photos. When I'm tweaking my presets I just remove it from the original preset.
AdamWold wrote:
Do you find yourself often having to boost the exposure after applying a VSCO preset? Maybe my exposures are too dark to start with but after applying a VSCO preset I end up having enhance by 1/2 or a full stop.
Depends on which one. On the VSCO 1 portra presets I was finding that sometimes they were too bright but mostly in the highlights. On the VSCO 2 Portra NC presets that I've been using lately I've found that I do have to boost exposure a bit very often.
I have the Mastin Portra presets and love them. They're perfect for me, since I shoot weddings both on film and digital and since I shoot Portra 400 the presets help me to match my digital to the film I use accurately. I'm impressed with the black and white presets from what I've seen- the Ilford warmtone paper with Tri-X looks exactly like my darkroom prints (which I printed with that same combo), back when I cared enough to be in a darkroom. I'm happy with my own b&w conversions though so I won't be getting them.
VSCO gives a really nice look, but it doesn't actually emulate any particular film, they just approximate a general "film" look.
