VSCO film-preset look

• Open shadows: bright surroundings (walls, ground, sky) fill them; no reflector needed.

Shadow edges

Shadows that fade gradually from light to dark, cast by a large or diffused light: a window, a softbox, a cloudy sky.

Shadow depth

Shadows kept light and full of detail by a reflector, a fill light, bounce or bright surroundings (a low lighting ratio, up to about 3:1: the shadow side at most a stop and a half darker).

This plan is worked out from the style’s choices, so it is drawn as a schematic. One way to get the light, not a record of how any photograph was lit.

Then

28–50 mm · f/1.8–f/2.8 · 1/2000–1/60 s · ISO 32–400 on a phone, inferred from the gear and the look. Mostly iPhones of 2012–16 on auto in soft daylight (iPhone 5: 33 mm eq., f/2.4; 6s: 29 mm, f/2.2; 7: 28 mm, f/1.8); VSCO Film presets also went on DSLR raw files from any lens. The look is the grade, so settings vary widely.

White balance

Phone auto white balance, then a film-emulation preset warms the highlights and tints the shadows green or teal, so nothing is left truly neutral (inferred).

Focal length

Roughly the eye’s own perspective; no visible distortion.

Angle

The camera at the height of a standing person or of the subject.

Crop & fill

A small subject in a large empty field.

Instant

A casual, unplanned instant, taken quickly.

Rarely posed: friends sit or stand loosely, glance away past the camera or walk ahead with their backs turned, faces calm or half hidden by hair or a hat; often only the photographer's own hand appears, holding a cup, a flower or a pair of glasses up to the view; self-portraits are held at arm's length.

Head & gaze

Eyes off the frame, past the camera or into the distance, as if lost in thought.

Arms & hands

Only hands in the frame, holding, pouring, cutting or offering, with no face.

Line & energy

Loose and unforced, as people stand and sit when they forget the camera, whether caught or coaxed by prompts.

Without a pose

No people at all, or people so small or far off that their pose does not read (hands alone are Hands alone).

The moment

Ordinary photographs by and for ordinary people, or images that look like them.

Barely styled: everyday casual clothes (knitwear, denim, flannel, oversized tees, a hat), natural hair and light make-up, places as found (beaches, roads, cafés, windows), and at most a cup, a book or a plant set on a clean table with open space around it.

Clothes

What people happened to be wearing; nothing chosen for the picture.

How much is styled

Nothing dressed, made up, moved or added for the picture.

Look of the styling

Few, simple elements on clean surfaces, with space around them.

Colour

Lifted blacks and washed-out colour, like an old print. Colour held back towards grey. An overall yellow, orange or red cast.

Digital & other

A phone camera and its processing: deep focus, bright shadows, synthetic blur. A modern digital camera: clean, detailed, neutral.

Texture

Film grain or noise you can see at normal size.

Post-production

A ready-made grade laid over the whole image.

Shown as

Pictures arranged in a grid for comparison.

Shown in

Pictures made for a scrolling feed.

Frame

A square frame.

Stay away from saturated colour, high-contrast black & white, hdr & tone-mapped, hyper-detailed, heavy retouching, text & graphics on the image, coloured gels, black shadows, full glamour make-up, fully art-directed and neutral, true colour.