VSCOcam. The most complete review of one of the best mobile apps in recent years

Most of the apps are not unique. As a rule, developers work in the same segments and don't really try to create something new. They copy all the same functions, just changing the "wrapper" - the design and interface. There are a lot of such programs, and they do not change our understanding of photography in any way.

Another thing is the VSCOcam application. This is a truly extraordinary, high-quality product that has aimed to replace a professional camera.

Company and application

VSCO is a company that employs people from Apple, MTV, Audi, Levi's, Adobe, Sony. Together they make VSCOcam for iPhone, VSCO Film's image manipulation tool and Adobe Lightroom plugin VSCO Keys.

VSCOcam is not just a photo editor or shooting app. We can say that VSCOcam is Instagram “not for everyone”: with beautiful (really beautiful!) Filters, the ability to fine-tune the picture, weekly digests of the best photos and other attributes of a serious program.

The entire app is divided into several tabs: Camera, Library, Store, Discover, Profile, and Settings. Let's dwell on each tab in detail.

Camera

Here you can take pictures with the built-in tools of the program. VSCO's capabilities are more than enough. On the top panel there are shooting settings (from left to right): flash, guide grid or square frame, “free press” shooting mode on any part of the image, white balance lock, advanced shooting mode and the choice of the interface theme - dark or light.

Having adjusted all the necessary parameters, you can proceed to shooting. Everything is normal here - point the phone at the desired object, focus, select the exposure point and press the shutter button. When working in "free press" mode, you cannot adjust focus and exposure - here all hope is placed on autofocus and the correct default white balance.

VSCOcam has received an advanced shooting mode with iOS 8, and in it, in addition to the standard parameters, you can manually adjust the ISO and shutter speed values. To select an option, click on the icon in the lower left corner of the capture screen.

Library

We've come to the Library tab, where all the snapshots you worked on in VSCO are stored. They are displayed as squares: 1 × 1 (Large), 2 × 2 (Medium), or 3 × 3 (Small). You can adjust the number of displayed images in the top panel. There you can also choose which photos to show: all, marked, edited, not edited or synchronized by the "cloud".

V JournalYou can create a beautiful and concise photo story from your photos by adding a text description to them. Stories can be saved as drafts for revision later. This is important: you can only add images that you have already uploaded to the VSCOcam gallery. Therefore, make sure you have them in advance.

The last feature is Collection … Here you can collect your favorite photos. To save a snapshot, simply click on the corresponding Save to Library button in the context menu while viewing the snapshot in Discover. Next, already in the Collection tab of your profile, click + and select the best shots from the library. It sounds a little dreary, but in reality everything is much simpler.

Your profile is not only the photos you take, but also a place to get creative in the Journal, as well as a collection of your favorite photos. Recently, it is the Profile section that developers have updated most often, so now VSCOcam is also a full-fledged community of photographers with the necessary arsenal for creativity.

Settings

The settings in VSCOcam are no different from those in other applications. It contains information about the program, settings for displaying data, links to social networks, licenses. Here, on occasion, you can restore all purchases made in VSCOcam.

Outcomes

During its existence, VSCOcam has seriously changed. It remains the premier mobile photography app to this day. It's common to see the hashtags #vsco and #vscocam on Instagram. And the app icon on millions of iOS and Android smartphones is even more familiar.

Now VSCOcam is not just a photo editing application, but a complete tool for communicating with other photographers, creating photo stories and photo collections. We can say that VSCO has become a real phenomenon.

If you love taking pictures with your phone, if you want to experiment and use excellent filters, then VSCOcam hasn't come up with anything better yet, although other developers are trying their best.