Adding a Vignette with Photoshop

Vignetting is any technique that reduces clarity around the corners or edges of an image. Generally, you'll see the vignette as darkened corners and edges around the center of the image. This technique has been used to draw the eye to the center of the picture where the subject will be bright and in sharp focus.

There are several ways to produce vignettes in your own images. For example, using a lens hood that is too long or too narrow for your lens will cause the hood to block some of the light in the periphery. Alternatively, using a lens that is too small for your sensor can produce the same result. There is, however, a vastly easier (and reversible) way to enhance your images with a vignette if you have the right tools.

Demonstration

But, before we get into that, why don't we take a look at a few demos? Both of these images have been enhanced with a vignette. To see the original picture, just hover over the image with your mouse cursor.

How to Add Your Own Vignette

I've tried this with a number of tools including two free image editing packages called gimp and Paint.Net (to be sure, there will be future blog posts about both of these). But, for now . . . the popular one is the very expensive Adobe Photoshop.

Here's how you do it:

1. Open your image
2. Create a new layer (Ctrl + Alt + Shift + N)
3. Fill with white (Shift + Backspace)
4. Set blend mode to multiply (Alt + Shift + M)
5. Select Filter >> Distort >> Lens Correction
6. Look at the vignette section and play with the settings in there
7. Press Ok

That's it!

Homework

So, that's all there is to it. It's a quick way to add some spice to your pictures. So, here's your homework. Add some vignettes to your own photos. If you see any dramatic results, post them on Picasa or Flickr. Leave us a comment and link to your images. If you see any pictures you think are better without vignette, we'd love to see those too. For bonus points, see if you can create a vignette effect optically and let us know how you did it.

Getting to Know Your Shooting Modes

This probably looks familiar to many of you; the shooting mode dial varies from camera to camera but most of them have the same general settings. I'm sure that some of you undoubtedly know what these settings are, but others just dial in the green rectangle for "Automatic Mode" and call it a day.

The first step to taking better pictures is to get out of the so called "Basic Mode" settings and start using the "Creative Modes." The basic modes include: portrait, landscape, close-up, sports, night, and no-flash. In this blog, we'll usually focus more on the creative modes, but the basic modes deserve an introduction.

There's nothing you can do in the basic modes that you can't do in "Manual Mode." Problem is, manual mode can be pretty daunting. Over the next several lessons, we'll explain what each basic mode is, what it's used for, and why it creates a particular configuration. We'll teach you how to reproduce the same effects in the creative modes.

That's when you can really begin tweaking your photos to get exactly the effect you're looking for. But, not so fast. First, a homework assignment for you.

Take a few pictures in each of the basic shooting modes on your camera. Do some experimenting while you do it.

• What happens if you use night mode during the day? What about landscape mode when taking a portrait?
• When you're shooting in portrait mode, is there anything you notice about objects in the background?
• When shooting in landscape mode, is anything ever out of focus?
When you shoot in portrait mode does the flash go off? Even during the day?
• What happens when you take a picture of a moving object in sport mode? In night mode?

Answer those questions, make some observations of your own, post some pictures on Picasa or Flickr, and come back and leave us a comment. Tell us what you learned. Share some theories with us. Link to your pictures. We're looking forward to hearing from you!

The Photography Professors