This is a fun effect that’s easy to create and can really add to your photos – perfect to try on some of those hauntingly great photos some of you no doubt captured last week for Halloween!!

Before we start, I just want to say that in PS there are a hundred different ways to do things but here’s what works for me. It may seem a bit confusing at first but after a few tries you’ll be whipping through it!

OK, let’s get started!

  1. Open your photo, make your changes, sharpen, B&W, etc.
  2. flatten your layers
  3. crop to whatever size you want, making sure your resolution is at least 300
  4. press “D” to make sure your default colours are set (black on top, white on the bottom)
  5. go to layer, new, layer, ok
  6. alt, backspace – this should fill your photo with black
  7. press M to select your marquee tool (rectangular)
  8. with your rectangular marquee tool selected, draw a rectangle inside your photo, you should see a white dotted line. I usually go 1″ inside my photo.
  9. go up to select, feather, enter 170 pixels, and hit OK – you rectangle should now look kind of sloppy with rounded corners?
  10. hit backspace
  11. You should now see your photo with a darkened edge
  12. click outside of your photo to deselect or click Ctrl D
  13. Because we created the vignette on a separate layer, in the layers palette, play with the opacity until you have the right amount of vignetting.
  14. layer, flatten image
  15. save
  16. done!

Here are a few examples of photos that I’ve used this editing technique on: