Photoshop Tutorial - Adding a Vignette

February 15, 2008

Here is a method I like to use for creating a vignetting effect on photos. The purpose of wanting to create a vignette, is to darken the outside edges of the photo slighly, which naturally draws the eye to the center (or subjuct) of the photo, since it is lighter. There are several methods for creating a vignette, here’s the one I prefer using:

1) Begin with your photo:

2) Duplicate the Layer (Control-J on PC or Command-J on Mac). There are two reasons we are going to work on the duplicate layer. First, I always believe in non-destructive editing! Working on the duplicate layer allows you to discard the layer anytime, without affecting the original “Background” layer. Secondly, for this particular tutorial, you will later be able to adjust the opacity of the duplicated layer, to control the strength of the effect making it more or less.

3) Using the rectangular marquee selection tool, select an area of your photo approximately half and inch, to an inch inside your photo. Like this:

4) Inverse the selection, to have a “boarder” selected inside your image. Like this:

5) Click on the Quick Mask tool, to make your selection a quick mask.

6) Using Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur… Blur your quick mask until you can see the area which you would like to be left untouched in your photo. I like to use a lot of blur, depending on the size of your image. For a 4×6 image, I may use 40-50 amount of blur, for 8×6 to 10×8 maybe somewhere like 80-100 blur. It’s all up to you!

7) Convert your quick mask back into a selection by clicking back to selection mode.

Create a Levels Adjustment Layer by clicking on the “add adjustment layer” icon at the bottom of the layers palette (the black and white circle icon..choosing “Levels”)

9) Adjust the levels by sliding the shadows slider into the middle of the histogram more, like this:

You’ll notice the outside edges of your photo, start to have the vignetting effect, or darkening.

10) Final result:

The addition of the vignette is subtle, but it draws more attention to the subject in the photo. Give it a try, and experiement with using different levels adjustments. You can also adjust the opacity of the duplicated layer to increase or decrease the effect.

Thank you for checking out the tutorial. If you are not a PhotographyBB.com member already, subscribe to our RSS FEED so that you can receive notification of more tutorials as they are posted - We welcome everyone!

If you enjoyed this post, subscribe to our feed!