VSCO Officially Launches New Film Effects to Members

I spotted the new FX toolset a few days ago, and on Tuesday VSCO is officially rolling it out to members of its VSCO X subscription service. These remind of of Mextures, an editing app I used for a a couple years. I don’t use that app anymore but I do look forward to the grain textures in VSCO FX. I had complained about its regular grain tool for a while because it’s too uniform. But these new grain textures look more realistic and film-like, if that’s your style.

Built from actual film stock, these new Texture presets create a Dust, Grain and Scratch overlay for your photos and videos. These subtle effects allow you to add another dimension to your creativity. There are 19 photo and 9 video Textures available.

VSCO Shares its 2020 Year in Review With Top Trends

VSCO has shared its 2020 Year in Review, exploring the top trends it saw throughout the year like popular hashtags and photo presets. For example, the top third preset of 2020 was B1, aka B&W Classic. That’s my favorite VSCO preset for black and white photography and I have a feeling I was partially responsible for pushing it to the top.

Without the pressure of public likes and comments on VSCO, we saw our community share their most raw and true moments, and how creativity helped them to get through this year’s ups and downs.

VSCO Announces ‘BlackJoyMatters’ Photo Campaign

Something I like about VSCO is its curation of photos from its community of users. There are categories like summer, monochrome, abstract, and more. Its latest initiative is #BlackJoyMatters, a summon-long series to share photos from Black creatives.

We are kicking off #BlackJoyMatters with a global call to action, urging online communities to create, capture and share their interpretations of Black Joy to social media through posting art, first-person videos and/or photos across every social platform using the hashtag #BlackJoyMatters. Throughout the summer, we will spotlight the submitted imagery and art across our social channels and within the VSCO app.

Publish VSCO Videos With New This App Feature

After I published my list of VSCO presets I thought I’d send it to the folks at the company. As it turns out they had something to share with me too. As part of the VSCO X membership (US$19.99/year), users can how publish their videos to the feed, which was previously limited to photos.

We know this is something our community has been asking for and we can’t wait to see how you bring your stories to life with the new tools we’re making available for our members. We’ve rounded up some tips for how to take advantage of the new video features with your VSCO membership.

Behind the Scenes of VSCO With CEO Joel Flory

VSCO is my favorite photo editor and TechCrunch’s Kate Clark sat down with CEO Joel Flory to talk about his company.

Without selling ads or customer data, VSCO has developed a sustainable subscription-based business and written a new playbook for social media businesses in a world where Facebook’s advertising-based model is king. For those fed up with platforms that have facilitated bullying and failed to prioritize privacy, VSCO may be a protective corner of the internet.

I have a couple more VSCO articles planned for the future, like a review of the editing tools.

VSCO Redesigned its Feed to ‘Slow Your Scroll’

Photo app VSCO has redesigned its feed so that images are bigger. You’ll see single images at a time, instead of the old style where each image was smaller and alternated.

We believe this redesign will help you explore your VSCO feed in a new way, allowing the subtleties of each image to be front and center as you scroll. At VSCO, creative expression often starts with inspiration and sometimes that requires taking the time to appreciate the details as much as the complete work itself.

I think it’s an improvement and I’m glad to see it.

VSCO Hasn’t Released a Film X Preset Since January

The story I’m linking to is a bit of a behind-the-scenes look at the effort VSCO puts into emulating analog film. The company releases these special presets as part of its VSCO X membership, which costs US$20/year.

Its Film X filters recreate the look of long-gone analog films like Ektar 100, Portra 400, and Kodak Tri-X (a favorite of the late street photographer Garry Winogrand). It’s a long process that involves not just coding, but locating old film stock and reverse engineering the pictures captured on it.

It’s interesting to read, but I’d also like to take this opportunity to say that I’m a VSCO X member and VSCO hasn’t released a Film X preset since January. We were promised one new preset every month. Time to cancel?