The Complete Guide to Editing Your Mobile Photos in VSCO

What I want for smartphone photography is simple: a fast, reliable way to make my images stand out without needing to sit tethered to a desktop monitor. As the streets taught me, the best camera is the one you have with you, and often, the best editing suite is the one right in your pocket.

VSCO (pronounced Visco) is a primarily free photo-editing app that delivers incredible results. Whether you want to achieve a moody street photography vibe or a vintage film aesthetic, VSCO is a massive step up from your phone’s default editor.

Have no fear, self-improvement man is here! In this extensive guide, I’ll walk you through everything you need to know about editing, organizing, and sharing your mobile photos using VSCO.

Is VSCO free? VSCO Free vs. VSCO Plus

You can download VSCO for free on Android and iOS. For most casual smartphone shooters, you can absolutely get by with the free version. However, if you want to take your mobile photography to the next level, they offer paid subscriptions (VSCO Plus and Pro).

Here is a quick breakdown of what you get:

• VSCO Free: Includes 15 standard presets and basic editing tools (Contrast, Exposure, Saturation, Crop).
• VSCO Plus: Costs $29.99 per year. It unlocks over 200 presets, advanced tools like HSL sliders (to adjust specific colors independently), and Video Editing.
• VSCO Pro: Built for serious creators, this tier adds desktop web editing capabilities

Tip: If you’re a multimedia content creator, the ability to edit your videos using the exact same color-grading presets as your photos is a massive time-saver.

Getting started: importing and downloading images

How to add photos to VSCO

To add a photo, open the app and tap the ‘Studio’ icon at the center of the bottom menu. 

1. Tap the plus sign (+) in the top-right or bottom-right corner to open your phone’s gallery. 
2. Select the photos or videos you want to work on
3. and tap ‘Import’. It’s as easy as that.

How to download pictures from VSCO

Once you’re done editing, you’ll naturally want to export your masterpiece back to your phone’s camera roll or gallery.

1. Select your newly edited photo in your Studio.
2. Tap the three dots (…) at the bottom of the screen.
3. Tap Save or Save to Camera Roll. This will download the high-resolution image directly to your device so you can share it anywhere you like.

The best VSCO editing tools explained

To start editing, select a photo in your Studio and tap the slider icon. You can start by applying a preset (a filter) at the bottom. Once you’ve chosen a base, tap on ‘Tools’ to refine the image.

Which tool you pick depends entirely on the aesthetic you want, but here are the heavy hitters:

• Exposure & Contrast: Boost or lower the brightness, and make the differences between dark and light parts harsher or softer.
• White Balance: Make your photo warmer (yellow) or colder (blue). This is essential for fixing bad artificial lighting.
• Skin Tone: Adjusts the purple and green tones to keep human subjects looking natural, even when you heavily filter the background.
• Dodge & Burn: Selectively lighten (dodge) or darken (burn) specific parts of your photo to guide the viewer’s eye.
• HSL (Hue, Saturation, Lightness): A premium feature that lets you manipulate individual colors. Want the red stop sign to pop, but mute the blue sky? This is your tool.

How to add a white border to your photo

One of the most popular ways to make an image look like a physical fine-art print is by adding a simple frame. To add a white border in the app:

1. Scroll to the Borders tool in the editing menu.
2. Choose your color (white is classic and elegant).
3. Adjust the slider to determine how thick you want the frame to be. It completely changes the presentation of your image!

How to edit photos to look like film (and use recipes)

If you shoot street photography, you might love that gritty, nostalgic analog film look. You don’t need a vintage camera to achieve it; you just need to know which sliders to push.

To make photos look like film in VSCO:

1. Lower the contrast: Film usually has less clinical sharpness than modern digital sensors.
2. Raise the fade: The Fade tool lifts the deepest blacks, making them look slightly washed out and gray, mimicking vintage photo paper.
3. Add grain: Don’t be afraid of grain! It adds a grungy, old-school texture that brings a pristine digital photo to life.

How to use a recipe on VSCO

Once you nail that perfect film aesthetic, you don’t want to manually recreate it every single time. That’s where VSCO Recipes come in.

A recipe is basically a custom preset you design yourself. When you finish editing a photo, tap the ‘Recipes’ icon (it looks like a circular arrow with a plus sign inside) and tap “Save Recipe.” Now, you can batch-edit future photos with a single tap, applying your exact signature look in seconds.

The VSCO Community: posting, locations, and interactions

VSCO isn’t just an editing suite; it’s a massive community. But it operates very differently from other social networks. It’s designed to be low-pressure, meaning there are no public follower counts, and it’s much more about the art than the clout.

How to post on VSCO

Sharing your work to your public VSCO profile is incredibly straightforward:

1. In your Studio, select the photo you want to publish.
2. Tap the Post icon (an arrow pointing up).
3. Add a caption and relevant hashtags to help people find your work.
4. How to add a location: Right below the caption, you’ll see an option to “Add Location.” You can search for your specific city or neighborhood so other local photographers can discover your shots.
5. Tap Publish.

Can you like or comment on VSCO?

Many people ask how to engage with other users. Unlike other platforms, you cannot publicly comment on VSCO posts, and there are no public “likes” to stress over.

Instead, you can Favorite an image (by tapping the star icon), which privately notifies the creator that you appreciated their work. You can also republish an image to your own feed, which acts as a curated mood board. It’s a refreshing, drama-free way to enjoy photography.

Final thoughts

Growth is all about trying new things and refining what you’re good at. VSCO is the perfect sandbox for exploring your editing style. Play around with the free presets, experiment with the Fade and Grain sliders, and try creating a few Recipes of your own.

Get out there, start shooting those frames, and have fun exploring what works for you!