Applying vingnettes to photos-How do I?

[Charlene Dunaway]

Can anyone tell me how to apply a black vingnette to a photo? Thanks!

[kImages]

Charlene - there are multiple ways to add a vignette. PSE 5 and PSE 6 have a built in function in the Lens Correction dialog. PSE 4 and lower you can do it with a selection (of course the selection way works with 5 and 6 too). What version are you using?

[Karin Sue]

A few methods that should work with all versions of PSE:
1)
Select the area you want with the Oval marquee.
Feather the selection. (fairly large feather--depends on size/resolution of image)
Select >Inverse.
Solid color adjustment layer, color black.
You can use a soft brush on the mask with white/black paint to refine if you like.

2)
Select the area you want with the Oval marquee.
Feather the selection.
Edit>Copy
Edit>Paste
Make a new layer under the layer created via paste and fill with black.

3.)
Double click your image in the layers pallete to change it from a background layer to a normal layer.
Add a solid color black layer below it.
Add a blank layer between the image layer and black layer.
Select the area you want with the Oval marquee.
Feather the selection. (fairly large feather--depends on size/resolution of image)
With the blank layer active Edit>Fill with any color.
With the image layer active Layer>Group with previous.
You can use a soft eraser or paintbrush on the middle layer to adjust.

[Jeff Perry]

Charlene, In PSE6 (and maybe other earlier versions) another fun way to create vignettes is to use a Crop Shape found under the Cookie Cutter tool.

First, open your image file, duplicate the Background layer twice (CTRL J twice), then fill the Layer 1 (the middle layer) with black (or whatever color you choose).

Next, click on the top layer, then click on the Cookie Cutter tool in the tool palette. Next to the little "Shape" window above the palette, click on the down arrow on the right, and expose the current shape selection. On the right of the grouping is a a little double arrow (pointing to the right). Click on it and choose Crop Shapes from the list (if it is not already selected).

Now pick an appropriate shape to play with, and right below the menu bar at the top change the "Feather" setting to something between 20 and 50 for starters. This magnitude of this setting will depend a lot on the resolution of the photo.

Now drag your Crop Shape over your image, usually starting in the upper left corner, click, and drag to the bottom right, although you can really start anywhere you want.

Click the green check mark. Incidentally, before you click the check mark, you can grab a handle and rotate the cutter if you like.

Once you click the check mark, PSE6 will cut (trim) away the edges revealing the black layer below.

You can try it with feather set to 0 (that's a zero) and you will get a hard edge cut line.

One last thing, you can adjust the Opacity of the black fill layer, and the edges of the bottom layer will begin to show thru.

Try different shapes, different colors, different feather settings, and different opacities. And have fun.

Jeff

[Ken Winston]

Jeff,

How would you employ your system to vignette a number of photos together, e.g. 4-5, so that the photo edges appear to bleed into one another?

Thanks,

Ken