How to Create Perfect Vignettes in Photoshop

Vignettes are by far one of the most common and effective ways to draw your viewers' attention to the subject of your photo, but you can get far more control and creative freedom by customizing the process instead of using Photoshop's built-in tools, and this fantastic video tutorial will show you how to do so.

Coming to you from Blake Rudis with f64 Academy, this great video tutorial discusses how to take a higher level of control over your vignettes in Photoshop. Personally, I never touch the built-in vignette controls in Camera Raw or in Lightroom. These controls only allow you to create vignettes that are centered, and the vast majority of the time, your subject is not perfectly centered in the frame. However, by taking greater control, you can localize your vignette anywhere in the frame you would like, and it is a powerful way to capture your viewers' attention. The one thing to remember with vignettes is that less is more. People often go a bit overboard with them, which can end up looking a bit tacky. Generally, all it takes is a reduction of about a third of a stop to be effective. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Rudis. 

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

Log in or register to post comments
1 Comment

That's some pretty over the top Photoshop pp on the model.