I have always been a fan of VSCO. Using their presets has allowed me to form a cohesive look for my portfolio, and also anchored me to the fact that you have to get everything right in camera, before you begin editing. I've used the first and second set pretty regularly with my work for the past couple of years, and I was super excited when they came out with a third set- VSCO 3.
To any of you who don't know what VSCO is, it's basically a photographer's dream. They've made pre-done film edits that all you have to do is click, tweak to your liking and export. You can shoot digitally and still achieve the look of film (at least, 85% there.. we all know you can't make it totally look like film) - it cuts culling and editing down to almost nothing. I'm still a perfectionist and will do 80% of my editing in LR and then export to PS, but it seriously has cut down on my editing time by easily a handful of weeks. I can sit and edit a wedding completely in about a week and a half.
Some people don't like presets, because they see them as a shortcut. I say eff that. There's nothing worse than when you look at a photographer's work and can't see a sense of who they are- you have to have a cohesive look when you're a photographer.. Something that clients and friends can look at and say, "Oh this is totally soandso's work." I've had more people tell me that since I've started using VSCO (among other things) - and I think that's a huge compliment. You can achieve that continuity without looking like EVERYONE else who uses VSCO because you have to put your own tweaks to your work. Your shot is specifically yours because you dreamt it up in your mind. You framed it in camera and set your settings. Just because you slap a pre-done edit on it doesn't make it any less beautiful and individual.
Anyway, here are some shots edited with VSCO3. When I first saw the before/afters that they had on their website, it caught me off guard with how MANY they've included in this new pack. But the more and more I've played with them, I realized how easy it is to put the fun back in editing!
{I've listed the edit at the bottom of each shot. If you have LR4 or use ACR, go check it out!}
{polaroid 690 warm ++}
{polaroid 665 negative +}
{polaroid 690+}
{px-100UV +warm}
{px-680 warm+}
{fuji fp 3000b +++}
{fuji fp- 100c+++}
{fuji fp-100C c00l--}
{polaroid 690--}
{fuji fp- 3000b++}
{fuji fp-100c++}
{fuji kp-3000b+++}
{polaroid 669}
{fuji fp-100C negative-}
{fuji fp- 100c++}
{fuji fp -100c++}
{polaroid 690--}
{polaroid 690 warm-}
{fuji fp-100c ++}
{fuji fp -100c cool++}