I started using Lightroom recently along with the Totally Rad! Lightroom Presets and I've noticed that I tend to add post crop vignetting to a lot of my photos recently. I really like the look and try to use it more subtley to draw the attention in to the subject but I'm beginning to wonder if I'm using it too much. Here are a few shots I've applied it to recently. I'd appreciate any feedback on the subject. Thanks!
These are rather obvious and a little heavy. It looks unnatural especially on outdoor photos if it's that thick. I would use a little less and feather it more.
I think the first one should be without it because of the subject (sunny beach, yellows etc)
The 2nd, it works well with the silhouette trees, it reminds me of a bone china bowl.
3rd one, I'd add a bit more to really draw attention to the pretty earrings. : ))
I am not a big fan of vignettes but they can add to the photo if done right. if you like using them then go ahead because its what you like, i have some favorite photoshop actions that get used on almost every photo.
I also agree with the other comments that the middle photo would look better without or maybe not as heavy.
for the first one, i don't really notice the vignetting... and i'd probably think a shadow crept in somehow...
for the secoond, i think i'd prefer it without the vignetting... altho' the vignetting does give it a certain "look" which is what you might be aiming for (ie: Lorraine's comment about the china bowl)
for the third one, i could go either way...
but really, i like all the shots, and wouldn't have noticed the vignetting one way or the other in the first or third...
which just goes to show that everyone has different tastes :)
The only one I think it suits perfectly is the last one. The others seem a bit heavy. I like vignetting too, in the case of the beach, you could have tried some white vignetting instead of the black, since it is a nice bright pic.
@esox@bradleynovak@lorraineb@tanja_1211@northy@newbie thank you all for your input! it has been really helpful. i had a feeling i was getting a little carried away with the vignetting and i will try to use it more sparingly. great comments on not using it for bright outdoor shots and not using as heavy of a vignette. thanks again!
I like it on the third one..I love it on the second one on the bottom portion of the photo only though, so this one you could decrease the strength of it so it isnt as prominent.
I agree with the other comments that these seem a bit heavy, and a they're a bit close to the corners for my taste. Perhaps play around with the vignette midpoint and drop back the amount or increase the feather so the effect is more subtle. You could also consider making vignettes manually with an adjustment brush so they aren't so uniform and centred.
I pretty much always use a little bit of dark vignetting, e.g. this one had -18 on the raw file then another -9 added to my Photoshop file after editing.
@kcwebbah I love using vignetting on split tone, works best if you have nice blown out backgrounds or some shadowing happening in one or two corners of the image.
Your fisrt image probaly doesn't really need it as the fence draws you into the image and it is a very clean image.
The second one looks like it just needs to be feathered a little more.
Third one looks fine.
its a nice feature in film, but adding it into digital, well, erm...
I did it myself right at the beginning of my project, but I feel its a bit useless as an effect now. Saying that the middle one is nice because it has nice darks which combine with the stroke.
@dieter@flagged@cvanheel thank you so much for your feedback! i have been experimenting with the less is more and using very very subtle vignetting and loving the results! this has been a huge help! thank you also for posting example pics.
@kcwebbah Looks best on the last picture but looks good on the first one as well. The second pic could have done without it...I'm jut getting into Lightroom and the presets...and i seen that you can download more presets....so i may try that as well. I may try to mimic that last picture with the earrings. Great shot!!!!
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The 2nd, it works well with the silhouette trees, it reminds me of a bone china bowl.
3rd one, I'd add a bit more to really draw attention to the pretty earrings. : ))
I also agree with the other comments that the middle photo would look better without or maybe not as heavy.
Here is a great site for some free lightroom presets.....and photoshop =)
http://www.thecoffeeshopblog.com/search/label/Presets-LightRoom%20and%20ACR
for the secoond, i think i'd prefer it without the vignetting... altho' the vignetting does give it a certain "look" which is what you might be aiming for (ie: Lorraine's comment about the china bowl)
for the third one, i could go either way...
but really, i like all the shots, and wouldn't have noticed the vignetting one way or the other in the first or third...
which just goes to show that everyone has different tastes :)
I pretty much always use a little bit of dark vignetting, e.g. this one had -18 on the raw file then another -9 added to my Photoshop file after editing.
i agree with all above, i think it suits the 3rd shot the best :-)
Your fisrt image probaly doesn't really need it as the fence draws you into the image and it is a very clean image.
The second one looks like it just needs to be feathered a little more.
Third one looks fine.
I did it myself right at the beginning of my project, but I feel its a bit useless as an effect now. Saying that the middle one is nice because it has nice darks which combine with the stroke.
-amount
-midpoint
-feathering
so that your corners are as dark so it looks more natural but still makes your subject POP
You're getting the Concept :-D
but for me personally having it look really drastic kinda turns me off of photos