Quick Tip: Using Photoshop to Add Vignette
By Brian Auer • September 18th, 2007Vignette (pronounced vin-’yet) is a sort of framing element that you’ll sometimes see in photos (particularly older photos or Lomo shots), in which the image fades out toward the corners. It’s most commonly seen as a fade out to black, but white is also used sometimes. The vignette can be a powerful element of the photo because it has a natural tendency to draw the eye toward the center of the photo.
Vignette can be produced naturally if you’re using a lens intended for a smaller medium (like using a dSLR lens on a film SLR), because parts of the lens actually block out some of the light from hitting the sensor or film. There are a few other methods of getting the vignette effect, but the simplest of them is with Photoshop. Also, using Photoshop will allow you a wider range of control since it can be adjusted many times without destroying pixels.
The following Photoshop techniques are non-destructive (destroying pixels is a bad thing, and it’s downright mean) and easy to adjust. Now listen closely, and do as I do:
- DO THIS AS YOUR LAST STEP IN PHOTOSHOP!!!
- Create a new empty layer on top of the stack. Ctrl + Alt + Shift + N
- Fill the layer with pure white. Shift + Backspace
- Set the blend mode to “Multiply”. Alt + Shift + M
- Apply the vignette filter to the new layer.
Filter >> Distort >> Lens Correction… - Mess with the “Amount” and “Midpoint” sliders in the “Vignette” section.
- Press “OK”, and now you have art!
You’ve officially added vignette to the photo in a non-destructive manner using Photoshop. If you decide to come back to the photo at a later time and you want to change the vignette, just refill the top layer with white and repeat lens correction. This isn’t the only way to do this (and I apologize to those who don’t use Photoshop), but its the easiest and safest way that I know of.
Brian Auer is a photography enthusiast from San Diego, California. He's also the guy behind the Epic Edits Weblog. As a hobbyist photographer since 2003, his passion has been to constantly improve his photography skill set, to share his own knowledge with others, and to become an integral part of the photographic community.
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I get my vignette effect by using the lasso tool with a blurred edge of about 135 (depends on how big the file is). Then all I do is create a levels layer and slide the middle, gray slider to the right.
I find that to be the quickest way. If you decide you don’t want it or need to adjust it, it’s right there in its own layer.
Forgot to mention that you have to inverse your selection so that it blurs the outside of the picture and not the inside.
Good tip Brandon — that’s also a very useful way of doing this non-destructively. Your method gives a bit more control over the shape and position of the vignette too. Thanks for the comment.
Good article! And interesting technique.
I use Elements v4 which doesn’t seem to have that filter. My rough and ready way to get this effect is to create a new layer, fill with black and then use the lasso tool to select just inside the edge with a very large feather (150px or so) and delete. Then I adjust the opacity of the layer to get a look I like.
I don’t know that any versions of Elements have that filter. Does Elements allow the use of filters? If so, you can probably find one out there. The technique you describe is also quick and easy, just as Brandon had said. Hey, whatever works — use it.
Is the Lens Correction filter available in Photoshop CS?? I have that version and can’t seem to find it… Thanks.
I don’t know about CS, but I know it’s there in CS3… and I think CS2. It’s under the Filter >> Distort menu.
yeah i tried that and all i achieved was getting a vignetted layer of white, cause the layer of white was on top of the background and i couldnt change that
i find it easier to just go to the background layer and apply the vignette feature without making a layer of white
Marcus, you’ve got to remember to apply the “Multiply” blend layer after you’ve applied the vignette, otherwise you’ll just see the white layer as you’ve described. The reason I do it with a white filled layer is so I can change my mind later or adjust it after the fact.
Nice tutorial. I wonder whether this trick can be applied using the GIMP. Unfortunately, I only have the GIMP, instead of photoshop.