PHOTOGRAPHY 101 – VIGNETTING - IS IT A FAD?

TO VIGNETTE OR NOT TO VIGNETTE

As with everything else, there tends to be fads in photography. What is popular today will look very out of date in a few years. Selective coloring is one of those outdated styles that came about when it was first possible to use Layers in Adobe® Photoshop. It used to be very popular about 20 years ago when only those skilled in Adobe® Photoshop knew how to do it well.

The heavy vignetting of images in post-processing is one such social media fad, made popular through Instragram etc.. Done well it can be effective as an art form, but done to excess, in my opinion it becomes predictable and boring, and screams “Social Media.” Subtle vignetting, on the other hand still shows the entire image, but darkens the edges slightly in order to draw attention to the center of the photograph.

The manufacturers of lenses work hard to create lenses that create very little lens fall-off (or vignetting,) which is seen as a technical fault caused by too much light hitting the center of the lens, and not enough hitting the edges. It tends to happen more with extremely wide-angle lenses and lenses with very wide apertures. Vignetting can also be caused by stacking too many filters on a lens, thus shading the edges from light, although this is not much of a problem with today's photographers who tend not to use physical filters as often as they did in the past. There is a trend today to try to recreate the photographs taken with the cheaper cameras and lenses of years ago.

Traditionally, most professional photographers would strive hard (and still do) to avoid vignetting in their photographs, preferring the viewer to see what the natural eye can see, while still cleverly drawing attention to the main subject of the photograph through composition, leading lines, and lighting. Even today in the digital age, vignetting of lenses can be corrected in Adobe® Photoshop and other post-processing software.

Of course, I am not telling you how to create your art. Beauty is always in the eye of the beholder. But, for me the most pleasing images have little or no vignetting. I have had all the software tools available for over 20 years to create heavily vignetted images, but I choose as a general rule not to produce that kind of work. It may not be quite as popular, and may not even create as many Upvotes, but I choose to keep my style more traditional in nature for the most part.

Which of the following images do you prefer?

Each draws attention to the subject the matter – the dahlia flower. My own personal favorite is Dahlia 1 with no vignetting. It gives a sense of the environment where the flower is growing, with the focus still on the center of the image and the flower, although the lightest parts of the image surround it. Dahlia 2 is OK, but the vignetting seems unnecessary to me in this particular image. Dahlia 3 has its place as an art form, but eliminates the environment, making the image less interesting to me. True, the focus is on the flower, but I can't help focusing on the gloomy darkness too. That type of image would be great for a text book where text would be added to the image, or for an art print with text added, as in Dahlia 4.

It's up to you how you use this information. Whatever is pleasing to your eye is going to dictate your style, but decide for yourself based on each photograph whether to vignette or not! Don't just do it because it's the "in" thing to do. Do it because it adds interest to your photograph!

Dahlia 1

Image © Diane Macdonald. All Rights Reserved.

Dahlia 2

Image © Diane Macdonald. All Rights Reserved.

Dahlia 3

Image © Diane Macdonald. All Rights Reserved.

Dahlia 4

Image © Diane Macdonald. All Rights Reserved.

My color image of the dahlia is available as a stock photograph on Getty Images here

Camera:Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens: EF28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
Exposure: 1/100 sec; f/11; ISO 1250
Post Processing: Adobe® Photoshop CC 2017, Adobe® Camera Raw, Nik Collection Color Efex Pro 4 and Silver Efex Pro 2

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If you wish to have your before and after vignetted images critiqued by myself or your peers, just add the photography101 tag!