Vignetting: Not for everybody.
- May 27th, 2008
- Posted in Uncategorized
- By Edie
- Write comment

(With thanks to Brodiaea for allowing blogging!)
Vignetting is one of those things that either is loved or hated, it seems. Personally I like it, it tends to frame an image nicely. Of course tastes differ, and some folks see it as a flaw or a distraction.
In this image, the dark upper corners follow the curves of Half Dome nicely, and the bottom has weight. I find my eyes drawn into the picture because of the use of vignetting.


Hi Edie,
I think that many do not like vignetting when it is done with so much contrast. That is/was the beauty of re-creating this effect manually either in PS or by dodging when in the wet darkroom. Many use a version of this technique to do exactly what you are describing… the eye is drawn to the lightest object in the image, so the darkening of the edges makes your eye focus on the center lighter area. I think subtlety is the word that is needed. If you can achieve this effect w/o being too obvious, that would be more pleasing to many eyes. Just my 2 cents….IMHO
good illustration of the point tho