Photography lovers are about to rejoice over a relatively new app that is giving Instagram a run for its money. VSCO, a photography app that edits and post pictures with stunning quality is slowly but surely gaining major popularity for smartphone users.
Founded in 2011 by creators Greg Lutze and Joel Flory, VSCO has been taking the photography world by storm.
VSCO Cam, (pronounced VIS-CO) is a free app that can be downloaded on the app store and used almost exactly like Instagram, but with a few distinct features.
The processes of uploading, editing, and sharing images are improved with different and sharper filters that enhance the colors and quality of your photos.
You can directly import photos from your camera roll and edit them for your grid, or you can also take photos using the VSCO Cam directly through the app.
Like Instagram has profiles, VSCO has grids, which are long personal pages of your published photos.
Captions can be added to photos, but unlike Instagram, captions can only be seen when a person enlarges your photos by clicking on them.
Another feature of VSCO that Instagram does not have is the library, where you can upload and store photos in one place until you are ready to choose, edit, and then publish your photos.
You can add as many photos to your library as you want, but none of them will be published until you choose to post them.
VSCO also allows for more options in filter and exposure control.
The preset filter options allow for Black and White, high exposure, low exposure, blue (and other shade) tint, and many more styles that you can pick from in order to make your photos sharp and vibrant.
VSCO also allows for users to add other users’ photos to their collection by double tapping on another person’s photos, which automatically adds that photo to their library. So, if you really liked that other person’s photo, it will publish to your collection, but will still be attributed to the original publisher, which creates a cool connection between VSCO users.
VSCO also has a partner app, DSCO, (which according to DSCO Co-founder Greg Lutze, does not stand for anything in particular) which is another free app that allows you to create your own GIFs instantly and is able to publish them on your VSCO grid.
Flory created DSCO in order to create a more diverse community that allowed people to post more than just tasteful photos.
"We’re not interested in creating another social network," said Flory in an interview with The Verge. "We wanted to create a platform that honored the art [our users] created without likes and comments."
VSCO’s growing popularity is mostly due to the fact that it’s accessible and reaches many different kinds of people.
Avid or amateur photographers flock to this app because of it’s sharp editing features and quick sharing ability.
It also allows for many pictures to be posted at once, and there is no “one post per day” rule that is somewhat unspoken all over Instagram.
VSCO has quickly become the place where great pictures end up when they may not be “Instagram-worthy” at first.
It's also available on a computer too, once you have your personal VSCO URL. This way, you can look at your photos on your laptop or desktop too.
So, if you really enjoy editing pictures and seeing other peoples’ photos, then definitely take a chance with VSCO.
