I've noticed some very clear opinions among people in various online communities about whether you should use a vignette ever or when you should. I'm curious about what peoples ideas on it are. I personally like a heavy vignette in some circumstances and none in others. My personal opinion is it depends on the subject of the image.
I thought I would try out my 50 year old lenses: Canon FD 50mm f/1.5 SSC and Canon FD 28mm f/2.8 on my Canon R5 with the use of the appropriate adapter.
These photos were taken just outside of a small town in central Portugal.
Client came and needed headshots immediately. Set up a single Broncolor Para 133 in the dining room. Delivered 20 pics. Setup, Shoot, Edit and delivered within 30 minutes.
Here are a couple long exposure shots using my original 50 year old Minolta SR-T201 and kit lens shooting Fujifilm Neopan Acros 100 II. Both images were taken just at the end of blue hour.
6 Comments
I tend to agree that there is a time and a place for vignetting and it's use and amount depend entirely on the image. In this image, I could go either way. I don't think that it needs any vignetting as the nature of the image is already drawing me in, I tend to use vignette when there is a focal point I want specific attention payed to, but there isn't as much in the image to draw my eye to it directly.
I tend to agree about drawing attention to a particular focal point. I've actually played in Lightroom with this image and found that playing with some of the naturally occurring shadows in the edges of this image actually forms a natural vignette.
I agree with your opinion, Stephen.
However, I must admit to a lingering influence in my mind from reading Ansel Adams' "The Print", in which he stated that he usually burnt in the edges at the very end. As I recall, he wrote that this focussed the eye in on the centre of the image. This stuck in my mind, and rings true.
So my actual practice is to apply a vignette in the vast majority of even "natural-looking" images, the width depending on the image in question, but then backing off the intensity until it's just imperceptible as such, and only evident when toggling back & forth between the versions with & without the vignette.
Sometimes an obvious vignette is fine, especially with non-naturalistic images, particularly monochromes.
I love your image, by the way! I'd probably have done the above myself, since it's a fairly naturalistic rendition. But no complaints about your version, and the vision you wanted to portray.
Aside from the vignette issue, I like the leaf that points toward the camera. It adds depth nicely to this image.
There are a lot of times I like to add a little vignetting to an image. Here's one I think it helped out. Original, rotate, crop and a little playing with some sliders, vignette added.
NO