What is a Vignette?

[mcgrout]

There was quite a bit of discussion surrounding the critique of Carrie's photo about "vignetting." I'm quite new to photography but on a mission to learn. Can someone please explain to me what that is and give me a couple of examples? Thank you.

[RussHeath]

A vignette is a darkening (or lightening, actually) of the corners of your photo. It is traditionally considered a "flaw" of projecting a circular image onto a square sensor. However, many people consider it an artistically desirable flaw, as it focuses the viewers attention on the center of the image. Here are several taken on old film cameras which naturally vignette:







I personally love the effect, and I consider it one of the advantages to shooting less than perfect optics. There are a myriad of ways to do this with photoshop as well . . .

[bradzo66]

Vignette is a post processing tool that adds a loss of clarity or colour around the edges of an image . I have attached a small image as an eg . hope this helps .

[dcclark]

Vignetting can be spoken of in two ways:

- Undesirable side-effect which happens when you shoot at wide angles and/or with a bunch of filters or a big lens hood. The filters, sides of the lens, or hood cast a light circular shadow around the edges of the image. This sort of vignetting -- unintentional -- is usually considered undesirable.

- Desirable and intentional post-processing, which others have shown very well. Be very careful applying this technique! Lots of people are far too heavy-handed with their vignettes, and the vignette becomes a distraction rather than focusing the eye (as it is intended). A very light vignette, perhaps one that we would not even consciously notice unless it were pointed out, can often be much more effective than a heavy-handed one.

Vignettes may be barely noticeable, and come in many styles. Here's one example: Through the Trees, in which a combination of darkening and B&W was used to remove emphasis from the outside edges and focus on the central figure -- the outside edges (hopfully) just become a "zoomy" blur.

[candleman]

I almost always add i gentle vignette to my images.. very light tho'
just enough to create a slight difference in tones/brightness to bring attention to where i want it

[mcgrout]

Thank you to everyone that responded with such great answers to my question. The photos really helped.