The vignette has a long history in photography. It is probably most often used to draw attention to the main subject - often a portrait, but it can be just as useful in eliminating, or at least minimizing, distracting backgrounds. There are even filters that can be used with film cameras to create vignette effects in the camera. However the technique is really simple in Photoshop.

Quick Start Instructions for Adding a Vignette

1. Open your image file in Photoshop.
2. Create a duplicate layer: Layer > Duplicate Layer
3. Use the elliptical marquee tool to draw an oval around the area you DO NOT want vignetted.
4. Select > Feather and choose a fairly high number - the best value will depend on the size and resolution of the image.
5. Select > Inverse.
6. Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and select a blur value, choosing something that gives you the effect you are looking for

Note: the "au" in Gauss is pronounced like "ow" in cow or the "ou" in ouch.

Detailed Tutorial for Adding a Vignette

Step 1

Open the image you want to add the vignette to.

Step 2

• On the Menu bar, select Layer. A drop-down menu appears. Select Duplicate Layer
• Click OK to create the layer
  This will allow you to make changes without affecting the original image, so it will be easy to start over again if you don't like the results anywhere along the way

Step 3

Use the elliptical marquee tool to draw an oval around the area you DO NOT want vignetted. The elliptical marquee tool is in the upper left corner of the tools palette. If the marquee tool shown is the rectangular one (see first example above), then simply click on the ellipsis in the marquee bar to change from the rectangular to the elliptical marquee)

Step 4

Select > Feather and this will open the Feather Selection dialog box. Choose a fairly high number - the best value will depend on the size and resolution of the image.

Step 5

Select > Inverse to select the area outside of the oval. This will be the area that gets the vignetting effect.

Step 6

Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and select a blur value, choosing something that gives you the effect you are looking for.

Step 7

Save the result. You may want to "Save As" in order to keep your original file intact, to specify to save as a JPEG (if your original was not already a JPEG), and/or to be able to specify the JPEG quality.

To Save As, select File on the Menu bar and in the drop-down list select Save As.

Here is the final result