A vignette, or soft fade, is a popular photo effect where the photo gradually fades into the background, usually in an oval shape. Elements has a built-in vignette effect, but the method outlined here is non-destructive--none of the original pixels in your image are altered--and it gives you more control over the placement, fading, and background contents.
Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: 2 minutes
Here's How:
- Open the picture that you want to add the vignette effect to. (Go to standard edit mode in Photoshop Elements 3.)
- Double-click on the background layer in the layers palette. In the new layer dialog click OK.
- Use the elliptical marquee tool to select the subject in the photo. (If you need to reposition your selection as you are drawing it, press the spacebar while the mouse button is still pressed and move the marquee selection around as you create it.)
- Click the "Create a new layer button" (first button) on the layers palette.
- Go to Edit > Fill Selection and use black as the fill color.
- Deselect (Ctrl-D).
- Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur.
- Adjust the radius of Gaussian Blur until you are happy with the fade amount. Something from 10-40 pixels works well, depending on the resolution of the photo.
- In the layer's palette, click on the filled ellipse layer (should be layer 1) and drag it below the original photo layer (layer 0).
- Click on the photo layer (Layer 0) and press Ctrl-G (Layer > Group with Previous). Now the lower layer is acting as a mask for the upper layer.
- To add a background, press the second icon on the layer palette "Create adjustment layer" and choose solid color.
- Pick a color for the background.
- Drag "Color Fill 1" to the bottom of the layers stack.
- Hold the Ctrl key down and click on Layer 1 (the filled ellipse).
- Choose Image > Crop. This will center the vignette photo without clipping the faded pixels.
Tips:
- Although this is a few more steps than some methods of creating a vignette effect, your original image is preserved and you can get back to the unaltered image just by removing the extra layers.
- The background color you picked in step 12 can be changed by clicking on the color swatch (first thumbnail) in the layers palette.
- If you wish, you can flatten the layers (Layer > Flatten Image) but be sure to save under a new file name so you don't overwrite your original.
- This is a great time-saving trick when you are restoring an old, damaged photo. By vignetting the subject of the photo, you eliminate much of the background which may have spots, cracks, tears, discoloration, and other problems which you would otherwise need to repair.
- Another quick way to create a vignette effect is with the cutout tool in Photoshop Elements 3.0, using the feather option. In earlier versions of Photoshop Elements, there is a one-click vignette effect in the effects palette. However, this method give you more control over the fade amount and the background contents.
