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!
- Open your photo, make your changes, sharpen, B&W, etc.
- flatten your layers
- crop to whatever size you want, making sure your resolution is at least 300
- press “D” to make sure your default colours are set (black on top, white on the bottom)
- go to layer, new, layer, ok
- alt, backspace – this should fill your photo with black
- press M to select your marquee tool (rectangular)
- 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.
- go up to select, feather, enter 170 pixels, and hit OK – you rectangle should now look kind of sloppy with rounded corners?
- hit backspace
- You should now see your photo with a darkened edge
- click outside of your photo to deselect or click Ctrl D
- 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.
- layer, flatten image
- save
- done!
Here are a few examples of photos that I’ve used this editing technique on: