VSCO CAM Tips: Night Shots

Today, I am going touch a little on editing of night shots using VSCO CAM.

Before I move on, if you are new to VSCO CAM or are unsure of how to go about using the app, the following are several other VSCO CAM tutorials and tips which I've covered previously:

• General photo editing
• Tips for Black and White photos
• Tips for Temperature Adjustments

Let's get started! This is the original image taken using an iPhone 5S.  Just so if you're wondering, the image shows the Singapore Sports Hub. As you can see, the lights in the image looked rather dull and there is a hollow light surrounding the top of the stadium.

Firstly, let's upload the picture we want into the library.

Next, choose a suitable filter. As you can see from the image below, certain filters have a stronger colour gradient applied on them; As such, we should avoid using them. For my picture, I've used HB2 (you may download the HB2 preset for free in the app itself). As mentioned before, do play around with the other filters and choose what you prefer best!

Next, crop the image so as to properly align the stadium in the centre of the image. 

For night photography, we will tend to underexpose our shots. This is especially so since we are using the iPhone camera and thus unable to adjust the f-stop, aperture, etc. like our digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera. 

As such, we will have to increase the exposure for the image. I personally stopped mine at +2, you could definitely increase the exposure to your liking, but make sure that noises do not appear in the image.

I prefer my final product to have a faded look and style to it, hence, I've decided to decrease the contrast of the image. If you would rather opt for the HDR (High-dynamic-range) look, do increase the contrast instead.

I played around with 'Tint' to add a little warmth. Reason why I didn't use 'Temperature' mode to edit my image was because it will tend to change the colour of the entire picture. In this case, if I were to apply 'Temperature', the white lights in the stadium will turn to either blue or orange.

I've also added 'Saturation' to bring out the vibrance of the lights and scenery.

Last but not least, increasing 'Highlights' to recover important details (such as the building structure, etc.) that may be lost during the process of editing previously.

And that's it! Our final product!

Do note that this tip/tutorial was created based on my personal preferences. You could definitely play around with the other tools in the app and make your night shots even better!