On a recent trip to a remote location in India’s chilly Ladakh region for astrophotography capture, one of my friends, who is a seasoned photojournalist, told me to embrace the noise in photos. “Algorithms can make everything look sharp and smooth, but they strip every click of raw emotions and mood,” he said.
I followed his advice and exclusively shot using the Project Zero mode in the Halide camera app. The app gave me gritty results with their fair share of “imperfections,” but the more important takeaway was that noise in pictures isn’t always a bad thing. It retains the natural character of the view as seen by the human eyes, and not the over-polished, uber-clean shots I would get from the iPhone’s pre-installed camera app, which has received a big makeover with iOS 26.
On the flip side, the shots produced by Process Zero are more suited for post-edits, which is neither convenient nor technically feasible for every iPhone user. Thankfully, VSCO recently dropped an app that is solely aimed at adding some drama or creative flair to the shots captured by an iPhone. The best part? VSCO’s Capture app is free and offers plenty of granular controls that will even please the “pro mode” fans among us.
What is VSCO Capture all about?
The simplest way to describe VSCO would be a supercharged filter app. You might ask that the updated photographic styles can pull off the same stunt, but there are a few crucial differences here. The iPhone camera app only offers a handful of presets, with just three core controls.
In VSCO’s Capture app, there are more than fifty live filters, sourced from a global community of photography enthusiasts, and pro-grade controls. Aside from the usual tools such as exposure and shutter speed, you even get the option to adjust bloom and halation intensity for film-inspired creative effects.
The filters cover everything from retro incandescent lighting with strong warmth to soft monochrome with a hazy night-time character. I’ve used the app for a week now, and I’ve permanently shifted to it for taking pictures. The beauty of the app is that it can even turn mundane frames like a crowded marketplace into an artistic shot with a beautiful character. Here’s a quick sample:
Another aspect that I love about the app is that it takes care of amateurs as well as photography experts. In the default mode, you can simply adjust the intensity of the live filter. But if you really want to explore the artsy side, you can open the Pro control carousel and play with exposure, temperature, halation, and bloom strength, to name a few.
Grit and imperfection over divine and picturesque
The biggest victory of the VSCO capture app is that it can turn even the most boring view into something a lot more theatrical and expressive. Take a look at this shot of the Withings Scanwatch 2 hybrid smartwatch, clicked on my table, lit only by a desktop lightbar.
The moment you zoom in, you can clearly see aggressive denoising on the round metallic rim and on the display, giving the image a flat character and dull look. Now, compare it with the shot I clicked with the VSCO camera app after adjusting the exposure and halation levels.
It’s the same object, frame, and camera lens in action, but the amount of dynamism and gravitas is on a whole other level. Moreover, the blurring of background images with a light flare effect is not only tasteful, but also shines more spotlight on the subject.
Additionally, if you are hunting for details, the metallic portions show more details because they don’t perform aggressive denoising and retain the raw lustrous look of polished metal when light shines on it from an angle.
My favorite is the deep monochrome makeover that further accentuates the raw appeal of polished metal without any colors in the frame whatsoever. It’s a lot more intense, thanks to the stronger contrast and tighter sharpness, while the background remains illuminated with a strong bokeh effect.
Above is another sample where a quick bloom and halation adjustment produced the red-tinged shot on the left, while the iPhone’s macro mode changed the entire color chemistry of the white background to a warmer tint. Where it struggles with the surface noise, the VSCO Capture app makes the best of it by using the grainy texture for tonal creativity.
In the image below, you can see yet another example of how the app turns the typical low-light struggles of a smartphone camera into stylized shorts. The iPhone’s algorithm-based camera app tries hard to balance object sharpness and noise, but can’t fully address the latter. With a bit of temperature and ISO adjustment, the VSCO camera app produces shots that are more pleasing to the eyes.
It shines at the unpredictable
While I do appreciate pictures with strong emotions, I am also aware of the challenges that smartphone cameras face in low-light situations. Even with night mode enabled, when the algorithms try to bring out more objects and colors, it is done at the cost of aggressive denoising and smoothening.
The result may look unnatural, even though it shows more elements than the naked eye can see in dark surroundings. The VSCO Capture app doesn’t solve all those problems, but it avoids the finicky task of balancing shadows and colors by taking an inherently low ISO route, one that focuses on the brighter objects and lets the darker areas tell their own story without any overprocessing.
As you can see in the images below, the iPhone’s camera app brings out more colors in the frame, but in doing so, it misses the true essence of night photography. The stills clicked by the VSCO Capture app keep the focus well-lit and retain contrast, but don’t over-process the surroundings, keeping the distinct night feel intact.
In scenarios where the algorithmic processing exposes more elements and colors, it does so at the cost of visible grain and a softer look. On the contrary, the filters avoid those pitfalls by favoring strong shadows and a hazy character with a discernible color tone over it, resulting in shots with more intensity and flavor.
When capturing human subjects, irrespective of whether it’s day or night, the VSCO app makes them appear more lively and dramatic, instead of chasing color accuracy and over-sharpening everything in the frame. Even when you’re trying to capture inanimate objects, the app makes it easy to give them a film-like or cinematic character.
Embrace the wild and unpredictable
Over the past few years, I’ve had numerous long discussions with photographers and experts who test camera hardware for a living. In the realm of smartphones, the message is almost unanimous. The images captured by a top-tier smartphone are getting sharper and more accurate, but they are also losing character.
I’ve keenly observed that trends. As algorithms improved and reached for a more realistic depiction of a scene, every smartphone camera has started to produce identical results. The only differences are zoom range, approach to portrait bokeh, and software-based chops. But when it comes to your regular still captures, there’s not much to discern.
There was a time when Samsung’s approach to boosting saturation in photos captured by Galaxy smartphones was a topic of hot debate. Some loved it. Others hated it. Samsung has pared that approach significantly as of 2025, and it hasn’t yielded universally positive results.
iPhones, on the other hand, have only doubled down on an approach where realism, sharpness, and dynamic range take precedence. I don’t hate it, but the signature cinematic feel of an “iPhone shot” has vanished. After capturing about a hundred pictures side by side with the iPhone 16 Pro and the iPhone 6S, the difference was pretty evident.
Despite being less sharp, worse handling of shadows, and noise, the color chemistry was different in the photos captured by the iPhone 6S. The iPhone 16 Pro produces shots that aim for perfection above anything else. And in its quest to do so, it brings out details that are not visible to the human eye, even in daylight.
In a nutshell, it’s not a realistic portrayal of the frame that was in front of your eyes and imprinted on your brain. This is where VSCO’s app comes to the rescue. The pre-built filters in the app cover a wide range of emotions, from retro-futuristic drama to blue-tinged serenity. There are plenty of options to play with, and with a healthy few controls to get the desired effects.
It’s not perfect, and there are some stability and lag issues, but the results more than make up for those stutters. Just make sure that you embrace the process and let your curiosity lead the way.
