VSCO 4 Slide Film.

[acearchie]

I don't know if many of you have heard of the VCSO presets for use in LR, Aperture and PS.

Over the weekend I have been playing around with VCSO 4 Slide Film.

For those wanting some more real-world examples rather than the perfect ones that are shown on their site I thought I would post some examples of the base presets from a shot I took.

Here is the original image as it came in from the camera:

As you can see it's underexposed but there are still highlights clipping and it is perhaps a little too cool.

Below are the edited images with only the preset added and the exposure boosted between 0.75 and 1 + of the original. All changes are made in LR4.

Provia 400X

Kodak E100G Vibrant

Fuji Velvia 50

Fuji Fortia SP

Fuji Astia 100F

Fuji Astia 100f from Color Efex 4

Agfa Scala 200 Contrast +

These are all the main film stocks with Velvia and Ektachrome having other speeds (100 & 200 respectively) available.

You are also provided with presets for the same film stocks but pushed and pulled, some also have portrait and vibrant variants and some have warm and cool.

Personally I have enjoyed playing around with them. So far it's the only preset/plugin I have actually bothered using as the others I have tried have been too stylised or function in such a clunky way that it becomes boring to use.

Like any preset though these are meant to be the starting blocks for your edit. It is suggested that you set your exposure and white balance first before applying the preset and then fine tune from there.

For me, I ended up with this edit:


Kath by AcearchieArchive, on Flickr

I used the E100G preset as my base and then made a few adjustments myself.

If anyone else has any experience with VCSO or any other presets that they would recommend I would be interested in hearing!

If you have any questions about the VCSO presets then let me know!

Edit: For those who prefer before & after click throughy albums then there is one on Imgur here.

I've also added in an Astia 100f as created in Color Efex 4.

 

[Razeus]

LR can do all that without spending more money on "film emulators".

 

[rchip]

Hello Archie! Strange, I've just been looking at this software! It looks brilliant. I have the Nik Software collection that I've been having fun with - I only recently explored the film effects on Color Efx pro! I don't have all of the same films that you have in the same speeds but I do have Astia 100f. I thought it would be interesting to see the two softwares interpretations of Astia 100f! So I just saved your original image, boosted the exposure and applied the Astia 100f present. Here it is

Edit! I've also added Velvia 100 in the second photo - I know it's a different speed but again I thought it might be interesting.

 

[Edge100]

I have VSCO 1 and 2, which are good, as far as these things go. I use them regularly.

That said, they don't look anything like the film stocks they ostensibly emulate. Nice? Sure, but not in any way accurate.

 

[acearchie]

LR can do all that without spending more money on "film emulators".

I think the same can be said of a lot of presets and plugins. What you are essentially paying for is the shortcut to save you time in creating these looks. Whilst not fond of it entirely I am aware that a lot of people like this look and recently even had a client ask to have the photos more 'hipster'. In that sense VSCO is my cheat sheet. It allows me to straight off the bat have a variety of presets that can give me drastically different looks in a matter of minutes.

The price I paid for the presets is equivalent to maybe 1-2 hours of retouching work. Could I have created some cater made presets myself? Probably. Could I have done it in 1-2 hours? Probably not.

It's all swings and roundabouts really.

Hello Archie! Strange, I've just been looking at this software! It looks brilliant. I have the Nik Software collection that I've been having fun with - I only recently explored the film effects on Color Efx pro! I don't have all of the same films that you have in the same speeds but I do have Astia 100f. I thought it would be interesting to see the two softwares interpretations of Astia 100f! So I just saved your original image, boosted the exposure and applied the Astia 100f present. Here it is

Edit! I've also added Velvia 100 in the second photo - I know it's a different speed but again I thought it might be interesting.

Good idea! Never really thought of that. I have a friend with Color Efex so I sent him over the raw and I am in the process of adding Astia 100f to the lineup. Whilst I can see similarities, the main difference for me has to be the skin tones with Color Efex's version coming in too pink making Katherine look constantly rosey cheeked and blushed! I think VSCO has done a better job of the skin tones.

Color Efex and the Nik Software in general falls into that lineup of being too clunky and slow for me to use. I did enjoy the trial for a fair while but it irritated me with having to make copies of everything and I didn't rate their film stock emulation that highly.

The one filter I did like for a brief time was 'ink' set on a deep blue at about 15-20%.

I have VSCO 1 and 2, which are good, as far as these things go. I use them regularly.

That said, they don't look anything like the film stocks they ostensibly emulate. Nice? Sure, but not in any way accurate.

As I still shoot a lot of film I do feel that Portra is fairly close but similarly with so many variables in getting a postive colour corrected version of the film now it is difficult to really knuckle down on what characteristics various films have.

I shoot a lot of Portra for it's DR and nice skin tone rendition, but currently I am going through a few rolls of 400H, I wonder if I will see any difference. The only film I have noticed a difference with is Fuji Superia 400 which has a nice green tint in the shadows.

 

[Edge100]

As I still shoot a lot of film I do feel that Portra is fairly close but similarly with so many variables in getting a postive colour corrected version of the film now it is difficult to really knuckle down on what characteristics various films have.

http://photo.rwboyer.com/2012/10/17/vsco-v-portra/

I shoot almost exclusively film (and almost all Portra 400, at that), and VSCO doesn't look like Portra. Again, it's not bad; I use it all the time on my digital images, and the results are excellent. And it certainly gets in the neighbourhood of Portra, but it's not super accurate. Not a big issue; if it looks good, who cares if it looks exactly like Portra.

I shoot a lot of Portra for it's DR and nice skin tone rendition, but currently I am going through a few rolls of 400H, I wonder if I will see any difference. The only film I have noticed a difference with is Fuji Superia 400 which has a nice green tint in the shadows.

400H looks similar to Portra, but tends to get much more pastel and creamy (with a slight red shift in the highlights) on overexposure. It's a very pleasing look. Meter the emerging shadows and add 1-2 stops; beautiful!

Superia 400 is a much higher contrast film, with accentuated reds and (as you say) greens in the shadows. It's my standard street photography film, as it has more punch than Portra, 2 stops of extra speed vs Ektar, and still holds highlights fairly well. Oh, and it's dirt cheap ($1.99 for 24 exposures at B&H).

 

[acearchie]

I shoot almost exclusively film (and almost all Portra 400, at that), and VSCO doesn't look like Portra. Again, it's not bad; I use it all the time on my digital images, and the results are excellent. And it certainly gets in the neighbourhood of Portra, but it's not super accurate. Not a big issue; if it looks good, who cares if it looks exactly like Portra.

Totally get what you mean but my issue is that how do I know that my Portra scanned looks like your Portra scanned. How can we make sure that the labs scans look like me scans etc. How do we know what the standard is to match? Personally I would love my scans to look like proper Portra but I can't seem to make that happen!

400H looks similar to Portra, but tends to get much more pastel and creamy (with a slight red shift in the highlights) on overexposure. It's a very pleasing look. Meter the emerging shadows and add 1-2 stops; beautiful!

Superia 400 is a much higher contrast film, with accentuated reds and (as you say) greens in the shadows. It's my standard street photography film, as it has more punch than Portra, 2 stops of extra speed vs Ektar, and still holds highlights fairly well. Oh, and it's dirt cheap ($1.99 for 24 exposures at B&H).

Yes very nice and cheap! I have a few rolls loaded and ready in my Mju II. Have you got a Flickr where you share your film shots?

Because my scanning is causing me such an issue I have been shooting less film which is annoying as with a decent scanner I still much prefer the look to digital but as I use my DSLR for work my workflow is far better and I know how to get the looks I want straight away.

I have been shooting the 400H 1.5ish stops over so looking forward to seeing what I get!

 

[Edge100]

Totally get what you mean but my issue is that how do I know that my Portra scanned looks like your Portra scanned. How can we make sure that the labs scans look like me scans etc. How do we know what the standard is to match? Personally I would love my scans to look like proper Portra but I can't seem to make that happen!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pfQ61WTbug

Yes very nice and cheap! I have a few rolls loaded and ready in my Mju II. Have you got a Flickr where you share your film shots?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/67588280@N00/

Because my scanning is causing me such an issue I have been shooting less film which is annoying as with a decent scanner I still much prefer the look to digital but as I use my DSLR for work my workflow is far better and I know how to get the looks I want straight away.

You can get that from film; you just have to know how to make consistent, linear scans (see my YouTube video above).

 

[GoCubsGo]

I have shot with all of those slide films but my go to was always Fortia and Velvia 50, favoring Velvia. I don't find the examples to be close to what I remember of Fortia and Velvia, but I think that was touched on already.

Did I read this right? You took a digital image and used these presets that are to mimic these slide films? They packaged this under a plugin called VSCO?


For me, the Fortia and Kodak E100G Vibrant are quite nice. Your edited version is nice and warm. The shoulder being blown out is tough to get past but this looks like a really great spur of the moment snap (because you're clearly standing in a pool). I would be happy with it overall, even with shoulder blow out.

So you're saying these are all available in LR? I have the NIK package for Aperture, but if LR just offers these then that is a pretty handsome deal.

 

[rchip]

I think the same can be said of a lot of presets and plugins. What you are essentially paying for is the shortcut to save you time in creating these looks. Whilst not fond of it entirely I am aware that a lot of people like this look and recently even had a client ask to have the photos more 'hipster'. In that sense VSCO is my cheat sheet. It allows me to straight off the bat have a variety of presets that can give me drastically different looks in a matter of minutes.

The price I paid for the presets is equivalent to maybe 1-2 hours of retouching work. Could I have created some cater made presets myself? Probably. Could I have done it in 1-2 hours? Probably not.

It's all swings and roundabouts really.



Good idea! Never really thought of that. I have a friend with Color Efex so I sent him over the raw and I am in the process of adding Astia 100f to the lineup. Whilst I can see similarities, the main difference for me has to be the skin tones with Color Efex's version coming in too pink making Katherine look constantly rosey cheeked and blushed! I think VSCO has done a better job of the skin tones.

Color Efex and the Nik Software in general falls into that lineup of being too clunky and slow for me to use. I did enjoy the trial for a fair while but it irritated me with having to make copies of everything and I didn't rate their film stock emulation that highly.

The one filter I did like for a brief time was 'ink' set on a deep blue at about 15-20%.



As I still shoot a lot of film I do feel that Portra is fairly close but similarly with so many variables in getting a postive colour corrected version of the film now it is difficult to really knuckle down on what characteristics various films have.

I shoot a lot of Portra for it's DR and nice skin tone rendition, but currently I am going through a few rolls of 400H, I wonder if I will see any difference. The only film I have noticed a difference with is Fuji Superia 400 which has a nice green tint in the shadows.

Oh cool! So VSCO doesn't make tiffs of photos? I wish they had a trial I'd love to give it ago. I find it a pain making multiple copies as well, it really disorganises my photos. Sorry my photos I posted that I edited disappeared, I took them off my flickr so people didn't think I'd became a good photographer . I didn't think ahead that they would disappear from this thread as well!

 

[acearchie]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pfQ61WTbug





http://www.flickr.com/photos/67588280@N00/



You can get that from film; you just have to know how to make consistent, linear scans (see my YouTube video above).

You have yourself a new contact!

I might be moving to a new location next week so might have an empty evening to watch that video. Thanks in advance for sharing your process. It's something that a lot of people simply won't for some reason.

Only thing I worry about is that you say you have colorperfect. I had the trial but wasn't sold. I'll have to see if your walkthrough can convince me otherwise.

Did I read this right? You took a digital image and used these presets that are to mimic these slide films? They packaged this under a plugin called VSCO?


For me, the Fortia and Kodak E100G Vibrant are quite nice. Your edited version is nice and warm. The shoulder being blown out is tough to get past but this looks like a really great spur of the moment snap (because you're clearly standing in a pool). I would be happy with it overall, even with shoulder blow out.

So you're saying these are all available in LR? I have the NIK package for Aperture, but if LR just offers these then that is a pretty handsome deal.

I believe they are available in LR, Aperture and PS. Check out the VSCO website for more info. I managed to get in quick when you could get 50% off VSCO 4 so the prices might not be as worth it now.

If you are only looking to experiment then this guy is about to release some presets that will work with Aperture I believe.

Oh cool! So VSCO doesn't make tiffs of photos? I wish they had a trial I'd love to give it ago. I find it a pain making multiple copies as well, it really disorganises my photos. Sorry my photos I posted that I edited disappeared, I took them off my flickr so people didn't think I'd became a good photographer . I didn't think ahead that they would disappear from this thread as well!

Ha no worries. I have since added the Astia 100F myself so it all worked out in the end. Just as a note if you are looking for a temporary or anonymous host check out imgur.com. That's where I host screenshots and comparison photos like this so as to not clog up my flickr feed. After posting 400+ photos on one account in the past few months I do that well enough without these sorts of things!