This story is part of a content partnership and media exchange between Neocha and VSCO. VSCO’s membership program is designed to help you reach your creative potential. Take the next step in your creative journey by starting your free 7-day trial today and gain access to the complete VSCO preset library, the newest editing tools, and inspiring educational content.

Berenice Abbott, a renowned twentieth-century photographer, viewed taking pictures as a way to document reality deeply, honestly, and accurately. On a radio interview, she once said, “Documentary photography tries to get at the root of things. . . . We cannot go on just looking at things on the surface. . . . This means getting at things as they really are, which is not always pretty; in fact, almost never pretty.”[1]

She maintained this objective approach to photography when working on Changing New York, a photo project that focused on the radical transformation of New York City from 1929 through the 1930s.[1] She captured 300-plus photos that show the city’s architecture, a diverse array of people, and their way of life amidst change.[2]

View a selection of Abbott’s work below, with helpful insights you can apply to your own photography.

Look for Change

Abbott photographed the transformation of New York City into an urban metropolis. She documented old, historical buildings before they were torn down and skyscrapers constructed in their stead.[1]

In addition to capturing the before and after, she often looked for moments where old and new stood juxtaposed — a horse and carriage beside an automobile or a brick building dwarfed by a modern high-rise.

* Try this — Like Abbott, look for advancements happening around you, being mindful of both developments that happen quickly (like technological improvements) and those that happen subtly over time (like a person aging). Consider what about the present you want to preserve for the future. To get started, look for things that feel slightly out of place, either because they feel a bit outdated or because they feel new and unfamiliar.

Use Composition to Express a Feeling

As New York City was rapidly developing, Abbott felt a growing disconnect between progress and preserving people’s humanity. “I may feel that the skyscrapers are beautiful and majestic,” she said. “Or I may feel that they are ugly, inhuman, illogical, ridiculous, pathological growths which have no place in the planned city. Whatever I think and feel about the skyscrapers, I say through understanding of and application of composition.”[1]

By aiming her camera up at the towering buildings, she made the structures appear threatening and foreboding. By shooting downwards from the tops of the skyscrapers, she captured people as mere dots on the street below, giving the sense that the city overshadowed people’s individuality.[1]

* Try this — When you are shooting, think about how your perspective expresses how you feel about the subject you are documenting. For example, to convey that you feel part of a scene, try shooting from your waist. The image will likely take on the aesthetic of a snapshot, showing that you were present in the moment rather than just an observer.

Document a Complete Story

Although Abbott is most often recognized for her architectural images, her goal was to produce a thorough portrait of New York City, and that meant documenting much more than just the buildings.[1]

She explained it this way, “Everything in the city is properly part of its story — its physical body of brick, stone, steel, glass, wood, its lifeblood of living, breathing men and women. Streets, vistas, panoramas, bird’s-eye views and women’s-eye views, the noble and the shameful, high life and low life, tragedy, comedy, squalor, wealth, the mighty towers of skyscrapers, the ignoble facades of slums, people at work, people at home, people at play — these are but a small part of the city.”[1]

* Try this – While your project may not be as exhaustive as Abbott’s, try taking whatever subject matter you are shooting and photograph it from as many angles as you can think of. Make it your goal to document something as completely as possible. Shoot a scene from above, below, and straight on. Then play with distance, moving close to photograph the details within the scene or further away to understand scale.

Sources:

[1] Yamada, Takayuki. “An Analysis on Berenice Abbottʼs ‘Changing New York’: People and Lives of the Heterogeneous City.” Waseda Rilas Journal, Oct. 2016, www.waseda.jp/flas/rilas/assets/uploads/2016/10/Rilas04_225-241_Takayuki-YAMADA.pdf.

[2] Synan, Abbie. “Berenice Abbott: Feminist Pioneer Of NYC Photography.” Culture Trip, 28 Oct. 2016, www.theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/new-york/articles/unique-new-york-a-changing-city-through-the-lens-of-photographer-berenice-abbott.

This story is part of a content partnership and media exchange between Neocha and VSCO. VSCO’s membership program is designed to help you reach your creative potential. Take the next step in your creative journey by starting your free 7-day trial today and gain access to the complete VSCO preset library, the newest editing tools, and inspiring educational content.

To learn more about making the most of light in the comfort of home, we spoke with Stella Simona, a jewelry designer and creative director from Los Angeles, California. She has two brands Haati Chai and Amarilo Jewelry, as well as a blog, Chai Time, where she places her aesthetic touch on beauty, design and style.

Read her take on utilizing the golden hour.

VSCO: How did you come to consistently make images this way?

Stella Simona: Honestly, it took a lot of trial and error. I found myself spending all day trying to get a specific shot and I found there was only certain times of the day where I felt my vision was able to be executed. ​I eventually realized that mood I wanted to capture was highly dependent on a certain kind of light. This light has become one of my signature settings.

“My photos highlight my mood alongside a look that reflects me.”

VSCO: How does this evening light make you feel when experiencing it at home?

Stella Simona: The sun is always therapy for me. Golden light is warm, soft, dimensional. It produces a dreamy, nostalgic, romantic effect. On days when I don’t get to take in this time of day, I feel I’ve missed a big portion of the rituals that keep me balanced. It’s such a relaxing time of day.

VSCO: What is the importance of good lighting in your work?

Stella Simona: For my aesthetic, it is the core of the image. I have to always be very intentional with my choice of lighting because the right lighting makes or breaks the shot. When I photograph an image in golden light, I can leave the image almost as is and make the most subtle post-processing edits. To me, there’s more beauty to an image when it feels this raw.

“To me, there’s more beauty to an image when it feels this raw.”

VSCO: How are you controlling the light in your photos?

Stella Simona: In truth, the light I am most inspired by isn’t artificial. There is a need to be flexible, because golden hour comes at a very specific time of the day. It’s really important to learn the space you’re shooting in and calculate what time the light will be just right, since golden hour disappears very quickly. I have found that if it’s a new location, spending the full day before shooting helps to map out when the light I’m looking for will be present.

I love to create unexpected shadows by positioning certain objects or utilizing the natural shadows of the environment I’m in.

VSCO: For you, what pairs best when styling a shoot at golden hour?

Stella Simona: I love to carefully utilize different elements that complement one another – textures, shapes, silhouettes, shadows. Shadow play is such a powerful and underutilized photo trick and with golden hour comes the opportunity to create shadows with beaming golden light that create the best moody images. I also often incorporate glassware with water to create rich reflections and add dimension to my images.

This story is part of a content partnership and media exchange between Neocha and VSCO. VSCO’s membership program is designed to help you reach your creative potential. Take the next step in your creative journey by starting your free 7-day trial today and gain access to the complete VSCO preset library, the newest editing tools, and inspiring educational content.

The HSL tool—which controls hue, saturation, and luminosity—is suited for subtle, yet transformative changes to your images, but it also offers a chance to get a little wild. By experimenting with HSL, you can create completely new looks. Using the D1 preset as the base for both recipes, we created two monochromatic edits in pink and blue. Reminiscent of Pop art, these recipes give ordinary images a more graphic feel. Try these two recipes to get a feel for the control HSL gives you over specific colors, and then start creating your own unique looks!

In the following step-by-step tutorial, see how this photo of a table setting transforms. After creating these edits on your own image, try saving them as a recipe for future use. As a VSCO member, you can save up to 10 recipes.

Step 1 — Select an image in your Studio and tap the Preset icon. Apply the D1 preset at full strength (+12). This will limit the tones to solely pinks and blues.

Step 2 — Select HSL from your toolkit. Tap the purple circle and slide the Saturation (S) fully to the left at -6.0 and the Luminance (L) to -5.0. Now your image bears similarities to a cyanotype, a photographic printing process that produces blue pictures.

Step 3 — To bring back some of the details that have been lost, select the Exposure tool and lower exposure to -4.5.

*The necessary exposure per image can vary, so you may need to play with moving the slider back and forth to find the right exposure for your image.

Complementary to the blue monochromatic look, try this recipe to achieve a bold, neon pink aesthetic.

This story is part of a content partnership and media exchange between Neocha and VSCO. Their membership program, VSCO X, is designed to help you reach your creative potential. Take the next step in your creative journey by starting your free 7-day VSCO X trial today and gain access to the complete VSCO preset library, the newest editing tools, and inspiring educational content.

Adding a simple object to your toolkit, such as a prism, can keep your creative process fun and fresh. There are many types of prisms to choose from—glass or plastic, triangular or round, large or small. To get started, we suggest a six-inch-long glass triangular prism, but feel free to experiment with a variety of types.

Remember that when held at different angles, a single prism can produce multiple effects. Try shooting with a prism in the following three ways:

The more sides or ‘faces’ a prism has, the more repetition you can create in your photo. Draw attention to your favorite portion of a scene by using the prism to multiply the number of times it appears in the photo.

Use a prism to layer a reflection from outside of the frame onto your image, such as the sky overhead. This effect often feels similar to a double exposure and can be used to give additional insight into your surroundings.

Instead of covering your entire lens with the prism, try a more subtle approach. Hold the prism so that only a corner or portion of the frame becomes distorted. This method works especially well when shooting portraits, because it maintains the person’s natural appearance, while still adding a dreamy effect.

This story is part of a content partnership and media exchange between Neocha and VSCO. Their membership program, VSCO X, is designed to help you reach your creative potential. Take the next step in your creative journey by starting your free 7-day VSCO X trial today and gain access to the complete VSCO preset library, the newest editing tools, and inspiring educational content.

Flash has the potential to create uniquely balanced photos that blend natural and artificial light. Dusk creates the perfect environment for easily experimenting with this technique. Turn your flash on and learn how you can extend your next shoot past sunset’s golden hour.

By default, the flash on your camera may not always go off when you want it to. Using VSCO’s camera, you can toggle through four different flash modes to achieve the look you want. For this particular technique, the Flash On mode is all we need, since we want the flash to go off no matter what. Other modes include Automatic, which fires the flash depending on the scene, or Torch, which is a flashlight style approach that is constantly on, making it great for composing in very dim environments.

What makes this look so unique is how both the artificial light from the flash and the remaining ambient light in the sky combine to make a balanced exposure. Without the flash, you would have to choose to expose for either the dark foreground, or the brighter sky in the background. Waiting for the right time of day is key to striking this balance and creating a dynamic mix of light.

By waiting for the sun to set, the overall brightness in a scene is greatly reduced, but you’ll also observe that the sky will remain lit for some time. This is dusk, also called ‘blue hour’ for the deep blue color the sky often takes on. Your flash will be strong enough to illuminate your subject, while the rich colors of sky will also continue to shine through.

Your flash is likely only powerful enough to light up your immediate surroundings, or foreground. Secondly, you’ll want to make sure the ambient light from the sky is also part of the background. By composing for both foreground and background, you take full advantage of the multiple sources of light. If your photo feels dim, try moving your foreground subject closer to the flash. Get creative with framing by changing up your perspective or juxtaposing your subject against a plain sky.