Photoshop vignette methods

Vignettes can add a touch of emphasis and "punch" to a photo if used well. In this tutorial, I'll discuss a few simple vignette methods in Photoshop and Elements.

Before I get into the nuts and bolts, I want to start with a couple of important points:

• Be gentle. To my mind, a vignette shouldn't be a prominent feature of a photo - in fact, the casual observer shouldn't be consciously aware that a vignette has been added at all. Its purpose is to subtly draw the viewer's eye to the important features of the photograph.
  
  I think the majority of established photographers would admit, if pressed, that they went through a strong vignette phase which they now regret. It might have been trendy at one stage, and who knows? - it might come back. But right now, I think less is more.
  
  (Disclaimer: I'll be applying stronger-than-usual vignettes in this tutorial, for the sake of emphasis.)
  
  
• Always keep it on its own layer. I know I bang on about layers a lot, and I know that not everyone saves their layered files as fastidiously as I do. But vignettes are awfully dependent on the chosen output size - if you apply your neat vignette to a 2:3 full frame image, then your client orders a 4:5 print (eg 8x10), your vignette might end up looking unbalanced. In that case, you need to be able to modify the vignette layer to suit the new crop.
  
  Plus, of course, you can easily reduce the strength of the vignette layer at a later date, if you find you were a bit too enthusiastic :)

Buying a wide-gamut screen

You might be considering a wide-gamut option for your next monitor purchase.  There are more and more of them around, at better and better prices.

While it's wonderful to be able to display most of the Adobe RGB colour space (ie more than sRGB), there are three small factors you need to be aware of:

1. You need a calibration device which can handle wide-gamut.  When you're budgeting for your monitor purchase, check to see if your current calibrator is wide-gamut-capable.  If it isn't, you'll need to find some room in your budget for a new device.

2. Once you have a wide-gamut screen, EVERYTHING needs to be colour-managed, because no colours will look right in non-colour-managed apps.  If you're not already a Firefox or Safari web browser, you'll need to make the switch.

3. A wide-gamut screen is capable of showing much more vivid colour than your lab can possibly print.  So you'll need to include soft-proofing in your workflow at times when you have bright colours (clothing/flowers/etc) in your images.

None of these things are big "problems", per se.  I'm certainly not discouraging you from buying wide-gamut.  They're just considerations, that's all.