Add vignettes using Photoshop in 6 simple steps

In photography vignetting, or light fall-off, is the loss of brightness at the borders of an image and it is a lens characteristic or weakness.

Usually vignettes are not desired however it is not uncommon to add them during post-processing for example to draw the attention of the user to a particular portion of the image or to give it an aged look.

I am going to show you how to add vignetting to your image using Adobephotoshop in just a few simple steps.

1. Open the image you want to add vignettes to in Adobe Photoshop
   
2. Select the Lasso Tool (L) or the Elliptical Marquee tool (M)
   
   
   I usually prefer the Lasso Tool since it is more flexible and allow to draw irregular shapes.
3. Select loosely the portion of the image you want to draw attention to
   
4. Feather generously the selection
   Right click inside the selection you’ve just made and click on Feather
   In the Feather Radius box input a big number and press enter.
   
   N.B.:Basically here you will have to experiment a bit to see which numberfits your picture but the general rule is that the higher the resolution the bigger the number.
   For a high-resolution picture start with 100 pixels
5. Inverse selection by right clicking inside the selection and click on “Select Inverse”
   
6. Add a Levels layer (Click on image for higher resolution)
   
7. Darken by pulling the central point to right till you are satisfied with the results (Click on image for higher resolution)
   
   If the transition is not smooth enough to your liking go back to step 4 and pickup a higher number as Feather Radius

Final image

nice pictures

from webpages..

Fall is in the air

Autumn is here (for those of us in the northern hemisphere). This year, the full moon and the autumnal equinox happened on the same day, for the first time in 19 years. Evenings now come sooner and the air cools more quickly, leaves are beginning to change, crops are being harvested, harvest festivals are being held, and animals and nomads are on the move to their winter grounds. Collected here are a handful of recent images of early autumn around the northern half of our world. (35 photos total)

A maple tree shows its fall colors on Friday, September 17th, 2010, in Woodstock, Maine. A vast network of county foresters, volunteers and others contribute their observations to state tourism officials, who in turn work up "foliage forecasts" published online and elsewhere to let leaf-peepers know where to find the best fall foliage. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

2

The moon rises into view over the Chugach Mountains in this view from the Anchorage Coastal Wildlife Refuge on Wednesday, September 22, 2010 in Anchorage, Alaska. (AP Photo/Anchorage Daily News, Marc Lester) #

3

Bunches of Tinta Barroca grapes on the vine at the Quinta dos Malvedos estate, owned by Symington Family Estates, in Vila Real, near Porto, Portugal, on Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2010. (Mario Proenca/Bloomberg) #

4

Sergey Solovyov, director of Agrostroy farm, inspects wheat in a field, some 450 km (280 mi) south of Barnaul city in the Altai region of Russia on September 22, 2010. Russia, devastated by a severe drought, had harvested 55 million tons of grain by September 22, down 32 percent from a year ago, (REUTERS/Andrei Kasprishin) #

5

Tree branches covered with changing, multi-colored leaves of fall are seen below a partly cloudy sky in Portland, Oregon on Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2010. (AP Photo/Don Ryan) #

6

The Space Needle, a passing ferry boat, and a U.S. Coast Guard boat are seen through fog over Elliott Bay, Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2010, in Seattle, Washington. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) #

7

Giant lanterns are displayed as part of Mid-autumn festival celebration at a park in Hong Kong on September 22, 2010. The Mid-Autumn Festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar; a date that parallels the autumnal equinox of the solar calendar, when the moon is at its fullest. (MIKE CLARKE/AFP/Getty Images) #

8

A child wearing traditional clothes guides cows during the so-called Desalpe in Charmey near Bulle, Switzerland on September 25, 2010. The Desalpe is the customary annual procession when cows are led back to the plain at the beginning of autumn after grazing during the summer months on mountain pastures. (Reuters/Valentin Flauraud) #

9

Two cows traditionally decorated for the "Desalpe" are pictured in Charmey, Switzerland on September 25, 2010. (Reuters/Valentin Flauraud) #

10

Pumpkins are presented in the German city of Hassloch on September 12, 2010. The town was hosting a competition to find the best pumpkins (RONALD WITTEK/AFP/Getty Images) #

11

Inge Schrimps paddles in a hollowed-out pumpkin across a lake on September 19, 2010 in Ludwigsburg, Germany during the annual Ludwigsburg Pumpkin Festival at Ludwigsburg Castle. (Ralph Orlowski/Getty Images) #

12

Geese fly just after sunrise Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2010, the last day of summer, in Portland, Oregon. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer) #

13

Elliott Cely, 2, of Portland, plays in a pumpkin patch at the Rasmussen Farms Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2010, in Hood River, Oregon. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer) #

14

Cattle graze in a meadow on a misty morning - the first day of autumn - in Kirchberg, in the Austrian province of Tyrol on Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2010. (AP Photo/Kerstin Joensson) #

15

Kashmiri women and men gather rice stalks into bundles in a field on the outskirts of Srinagar on September 26, 2010. In order to harvest Kashmir's 374,000-acre rice crop, the field is drained of water to allow the harvesters access. (SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP/Getty Images) #

16

A seasonal worker tears down hop tendrils from the suspension wires near Aigslbach, Germany, on Thursday, Sept. 9, 2010. The Bavarian region Hallertau, north of Munich is seen as the world's biggest hops-producing area. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader) #

17

Autumn leaves behind a Farmstead in Muncy Valley, Sullivan County, Pennsylvania on September 26th, 2010. Original here. (Nicholas_T / CC BY) #

18

Ringmaster Vernon Bergman, reveals the weight of a 20 foot wide, 3,699 pound pumpkin pie on Saturday Sept. 25, 2010 - one that will be the worlds largest once certified by Guinness World Records. The giant pie was baked in New Bremen, Ohio and sponsored by the New Bremen Giant Pumpkin Growers during the town's annual Pumpkinfest. The massive pie took over thirteen hours to bake in a specially made oven. (AP Photo/Sidney Daily News,Luke Gronneberg) #

19

A Kashmiri nomad carries a sheep on his shoulders in Srinagar on September 25, 2010. The nomads travel with their livestock and trek through the state's rugged mountain terrain to reach pastures where they spend the summer months in the mountains and the winter in the shelter of valleys. (SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP/Getty Images) #

20

A hawk perched on a tree at the edge of Randleman Lake is framed by the harvest moon, near Branson Davis Road in Randolph County, North Carolina, on Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2010. (AP Photo/News & Record, Joseph Rodriguez) #

21

Pinot Noir grapes for Robert Sinskey Vineyards are picked in the Carneros region of Sonoma, California on Friday, Sept. 24, 2010. Picking for this year's harvest is several weeks later than normal due to an unseasonably cool and mild summer. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg) #

22

Wine is mixed at the Quinta do Bomfim estate, owned by Symington Family Estates, in Pinhao, near Porto, Portugal, on Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2010. (Mario Proenca/Bloomberg) #

23

The changing colors and patterns of a leaf are seen in Portland, Oregon on Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2010. (AP Photo/Don Ryan) #

24

Rain drops fall into a Koi pond at the Japanese Garden, Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2010, in Portland, Oregon. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer) #

25

A deer stands among trees and bushes in the mountains in Utah on September 24th, 2010. Original here. (Billy Gast / CC BY) #

26

A Slovak farmer uses a horse-drawn plow as farmers harvest potatoes using traditional methods while they work on their field in the village of Spisske Podhradie, Slovakia on September 20, 2010. The Spissky Hrad castle is seen in the background. (REUTERS/Petr Josek) #

27

A team corrals the cranberry harvest in a bog in Hanson, Massachusetts owned by Kravtiz Cranberries. (Boston Globe/Meg Pier) #

28

Artists wearing Belarusian national dresses hold traditional sheaves as they meet participants at a national festival marking the end of harvest collection in the town of Lida, 150 km (93 mi) west of Minsk, Belarus, Friday, Sept. 24, 2010. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits) #

29

A visitor to a park in Berlin enjoys some of the last of this year's warm sun at the beginning of autumn on September 23, 2010 in Berlin as temperatures reached 20 degrees Celsius. (JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/Getty Images) #

30

Brian Chittenden harvests corn at his family's Dutch Hollow Farm in Schodack Landing, New York on Friday, Sept. 24, 2010. (AP Photo/Mike Groll) #

31

Danny Bolton heads out for a day of fishing on the Lake Worth Pier, Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2010 in Lake Worth, Florida. (AP Photo/The Palm Beach Post, Lannis Waters) #

32

Georgian men carry freshly-harvested grapes to a press at a farm near the town of Gurjaani, 110 kms east of the capital Tbilisi, on September 22, 2010. Gurjaani located in the Georgian region of Kakheti is one of the centers of Georgia's wine industry. (VANO SHLAMOV/AFP/Getty Images) #

33

Storm clouds blow across the sky as the rain starts to fall in a three second exposure made in a pumpkin field in Benton, Pennsylvania on Wednesday afternoon, Sept. 22, 2010, just as a violent storm hit the region. (AP Photo/Bloomsburg Press Enterprise, Jimmy May) #

34

A man walks on a path as fog rises over the lake at Gray's Lake Park in Des Moines, Iowa on Monday, Sept. 27, 2010. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) #

35

Fall colors just begin to appear in the trees in the evening light at Water Tank Hollow Vista in Susquehannock State Forest, Potter County, Pennsylvania on September 18th, 2010. Original here. (Nicholas_T / CC BY) #

photoshop tutorial

This post is a guest post by Lara Zankoul.

I’ve always been attracted to the tones of Lara’s pictures so I tried to talk her into sharing with us her retouching techniques and here goes her first tutorial.

1. Crop to your liking
I started with a well exposed & bright pictured and did a a square crop

2. Changed the color balance
Using Image – Adjustment – Color Balance I used the below values

3. De-saturated the picture
The next thing I did was de-saturating the image using Image – Adjustment – Hue Saturation

4. Apply : Image – Apply (Multiply 10% to 30% depending on image)

5. Variations (toward Red) – Image -> Variations

6. Add new layer and fill it with this color : #133e9f

7. Then Apply the picture again (10% to 30% – Multiply)

8. Add new layer and fill it with this color : # 0b0871

9. Play with curves and saturation to get a nice faded tone:

10. Apply image OR fix contrast to get the final picture: