4 Simple Editing Tips | VSCO + Afterlight

Keep It Simple

Adjust what you think is absolutely necessary, but don’t go too crazy. Only editing the parts of a photograph needed to improve it from its original version is a key ingredient to an organized editing workflow. Brighten the exposure, deepen the contrast, and play with the white balance for subtle changes that make your images pop. Natalie loves when her photography feels timeless, organic, and natural – explicitly simple by character.

Adjust Skin Tone

One of the greatest tools in VSCO’s editing app is the ability to adjust skin tone. Sliding the intensity level to the left produces more reddish skin hues, while sliding the lever to the right gives it the skin an orange/yellow aftertaste. This very simple, yet highly effective feature is complementary to a diverse palette of skin tones. You can see in Natalie’s portrait of Andrew Kearns that VSCO’s skin tone tool was levered a smidge to the right, resulting in a fresh coat of sun-kissed tanness.

Go Deep, Adjust Curves

Although VSCO’s simplistic interface is what makes their editing tools so unique and reliable, there is one feature it doesn’t give its users: curves. In the Curves adjustment, you adjust points throughout an image's tonal range. Initially, the image's tonality is represented as a straight diagonal line on a graph. This single tool is one of the most powerful commands you have in any digital darkroom – Afterlight definitely won our hearts with this one.

As you can see in the video, Natalie had a hard time adjusting one image in particular. When you have images that require an extra bit of help (like an overexposed shot during a sunny surf day!), it’s recommended to use the curves tool in Afterlight. Simply adjusting the curve line into an “S” for underexposed images or a “reserved S” for overexposed images. In the video example, you can see Natalie adjusting her curves into a “reversed S” to bring down the exposure without losing too much detail in the shadows.  These subtle tonal changes can be immense help with your mobile photos.