VSCO came out with a new preset pack this week (06) and it is pretty and fabulous. Some asked me to give my opinion on it, so here I am with my terrible writing trying to give my opinion on this.

Coming from a primarily analog background, VSCO has always appealed to me. Many of their presets emulate films I love and films that are no longer available. When I made the switch to digital photography all I wanted was my work to still resemble the quality and look that film gave me, I struggled with this for awhile and then VSCO appeared.

Pack 06 is based on some of today’s modern films that are still used actively amongst analog shooters. The films are cross processed, pushed and pulled to give a unique effect. If you dig lomography this is something that might appeal to you.

Cross processing is a technique where you can place c-41 film in E-6 developer to create color distortion in an image and taking E-6 negatives and developing them in C-41 to get exciting, very different colorful images. You can read more about it here.

Pushing and Pulling film is something that is done during the taking and/or developing process of film. Pushing is to rate the film a higher ISO and pulling is to rate it lower. I tend to always push my own film. Very rarely did I pull it. You can read more about pushing and pulling here, if you are curious.

You could imagine my excitement when I found out VSCO was releasing a pack on specifically pushing and pulling. Upon buying I immediately went to my standard Portra 160, which is my staple go to preset which I edit 90% of my work with. I was in love. It was great. Portra 160*1 + emulated a look I really sought after for a while. Then I moved to Fuji 400H, I realized with this preset it was pretty spot on for the real look of Fuji’s film. With some tweaks and comparisons to some actual film I had it pretty dead on. The same pretty much goes for the rest. With proper exposure I found that the cross processed films looked awesome. I wouldn’t typically cross process any of my images but some of these looked really great.

With most VSCO presets I found them contrast heavy which in some cases, I don’t mind. Most of the time, however, I tone them down. I also felt this pack worked better with overexposed images versus perfect exposure or under exposed images which was a bummer because I tend to always underexpose my images so that I don’t lose my highlights. A few bumps of the exposure and most of my images were fixed and looked great.

As with any preset these are a starting point with some personal tweaks and changes these presets will work their way in to my own workflow. A strong knowledge of Lightroom and what it is capable of is necessary with any preset and tweaking. Some of these presets look great without tweaks with the right photo but overall, this pack is worth getting your hands on and playing with.

400H*1

Portra 400*1 +

Portra 160*1 ++

Portra 160*1 ALT+

Provia 400X XP

HP5*2 ++ and Portra 400*1 –

Tri-x*1

Precisa 100XP

Provia 400X XP

Provia 400X*1 Over +

Provia 400X*1 Vibrant