I am so happy to have found an amazing tool this past week which has really optimized the way that I am processing my RAW images. I stumbled upon a set of DNG profiles and presets for the program which I edit and post-process my images: Adobe Lightroom called VSCO Film.

I’ve been luke-warm about canned presets or actions in the past. The often do not work well, require too much manual tweaking after the fact and really don’t give me the ‘look’ that I am after. Also the whole process of editing a file in Lightroom, exporting to JPEG, opening up in Photoshop and then running extra processing really eats up the time when you have to deal with an entire wedding.

Enter VSCO Film. This is something completely different. These film emulators are DNG profiles which actually alter the way that a camera’s RAW file is processed – no longer are you processing the file with a default profile or camera-specific profile and then applying color tweaks on top of that. This actually is altering the way by the RAW information is processed from the start.

I wouldn’t consider my processing style to be ‘film-emulation’ or ‘vintage’ but a high-quality, natural skin tone is a bit of an elusive, and labor-intensive task with the Nikon D700′s raw file using the standard RAW profiles.

When I saw the demonstration on VSCO’s website about ‘one-click’ post-processing I was understandably skeptical, but I went for it – and I am SO glad I did.

The relatively simple set of film emulations is stored in Lightroom’s presets and allows you to change the way that your RAW files are ‘baked’ with a simple click. After you pick the overall look that you want, you can tweak the exposure, color, contrast, etc. with a number of editing shortcuts that actually work and are smartly organized. You can tell that these guys really took the effort to put together a complete set of tools. This all means that I can get to the look I desire quickly without a lot of manual tweaking after the fact. This is really cool. At the same time, this is no a panacea, for these profiles to work you need to start off with a well-lit, properly exposed subject in favorable light.

The fact that the emulations are specifically designed for how my camera deals with colors, exposure, contrast and light is what makes all the difference in the world though. It’s efficient and skin tones look awesome. It’s totally easy to use and FAST.

This really made my week and is well worth the small investment. I dare say it is the best software-based investment for getting photos processed in a timely and high-quality fashion since I purchased Lightroom. Very well done, Visual Supply Co.

Here are some examples and recipes:

Fuji 400 H, Grain +, Fill Light ++

Fuji 800Z, Auto Black, Orange Skin Fix +, Grain + Fuji 800Z, Grain +, Auto Black Levels, LR Lens CorrectionFor a more faded B&W look: Kodak TRI-X 400 ++, Faded +, Auto Black Levels, Grain +Fuji 400 H, Grain +, Auto Black LevelsPortra 800, Grain +, Auto Black LevelsKodak TRI-X 400, Auto Black Levels, Grain ++

Fuji 400H, Auto Black Levels, Fill Light ++, Orange Skin Fix +

Kodak TRI-X 400, Auto Black Levels, Grain +It’s just amazing how great these images look (especially the skin), and how efficiently I am able to process these without having to leave Lightroom to get the look that I want.

The only thing that I have to do to manual tweak the profiles is to turn down the grain on most images, run the auto black levels for exposure, and tweak the white balance/fill light parameters. But the fact that I have these all set up as quick presets, means in only 3-4 clicks, I have the image where I want and don’t have to fiddle around with the sliders.