Lensbaby

Does anyone have any advice/techniques for putting dark vignettes on photos with very light backgrounds, highlights or edges? (for an example see my post "Wabi Sabi" in the general discussion secion).

I've tried in Lightroom and in PS but haven't been satisfied with the results on lighter photos. It seems easier on photos with more dark areas.

I see lots of cool vignettes on your LB posts.

Emm

[marthabusse.com]

Martha,
How dark do you want it? You could make an adjustment layer for brightness and contrast. Then adjust the brightness/contrast to as dark as you want to do it. Then on that layer using the marquee tool, select an area to lighten, then modify edges, feather to 250 pixels. Go to edit and select cut. You can then go and adjust the opacity of the layer to taste. I have done it that way a few times. The easiest way though is if it is a RAW file in PS you can vignette or open the jpeg as Camera RAW in PS and do the same thing. I hope this makes some kind of sense...
David

David Akoubian
www.bearwoodsphotography.com

"Time is a wonderful healer, but a really bad beautician" - Unknown



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/15/2008 01:00AM by BearWoodsDavid.

I do pretty much the same as David, but use a soft light layer in PS Elements.

Matthew

Thank you, David and Matthew for your help. I hadn't thought of that method before. It does make sense. I'll do some experimenting.

Cheers,

Emm

[marthabusse.com]

Or......you can make a clear matte/aperture disk to fit in the filter area of your Bender .

You will have to test vignette edging, but then that's part of the fun .

Post production vignetting works but we all know it's too perfect to have been real......:))

But is anything real these days ......I mean in digital imaging ? :)))

Interesting idea, Ran D. Could you provide more detail about creating a disk to fit into the filter area of my Bender? I suppose I could make a vignette of matte black tape around the edges of a filter and put it on my LB.

Thanks!

Emm

[marthabusse.com]

Emm: There are so many ways to do it .....you can purchase two 37mm clear filters, then sandwich your vignette between the two. Anything opaque will do ....I also like to cut clear plastic vignettes then use an opaque marker to draw dots on the plastic.

One of my all time favorite tricks is to use black plastic punching tiny holes around the edges, lots of holes, then in the center you place a larger opening, this one is especially nice for portraits .....you have to experiment to find which combo gives you the best effect for your taste .

By the way you don't have to stick with round holes, any shape will give you different effects to play with.

I find using the tiny round hole punches to make the multiple holed vignettes the easier way to go .

Soft focus lens makers have used these tricks to make their portrait lenses for a very long time, the Bender optics are also simple optics so why not use the same techniques that the master lens makers have used ?