Applying a vignette in Lightroom

[spotmeter]

I have been processing a photo of a beach scene in Big Sur with really nice colors in the sand, sea and sky.  As I have done with all my photos, I add a mild vignette.

On this photo, the vignette does not look like a darkening of the sky in the corners, it looks more like a gray overlay. In other words, the corners of the photo look 'dirty', not darker.

In going back over my past photos with vignette, I now see the same muddy corners.

Can someone tell me if the vignette in LR actually darkens the colors, or doe it just add a muddy gray?

[Rendezvous]

I'm not sure of the exact answer to your question, but I was wondering if you've tried colour priority in the vignette controls instead of highlight priority? It produces different results, and might be closer to what you'r expecting.

[graeme]

Or add a vignette 'manually'  using the adjustment brush to apply your settings of choice.

[John Caldwell]

In addition to the Manual Brush technique Graeme mentions, I often use the Radial Filter to apply vignette - sometimes even in combination the the Effect Post Crop Vignette tools.

Radial filter has the disadvantage of being elliptical or circular in shape, where the Vignette can be made more rectangular. But like a Brush-drawn vignette mask, you can exert just about any change you want to the masked area - unlike Vignette.

It would be great the Radial Filter would allow adjustable "rectangular-ness" to the mask. I adore the Radial Filter and use it on nearly all images.

John Caldwell

[SZRitter]

In addition to the Manual Brush technique Graeme mentions, I often use the Radial Filter to apply vignette - sometimes even in combination the the Effect Post Crop Vignette tools.

Radial filter has the disadvantage of being elliptical or circular in shape, where the Vignette can be made more rectangular. But like a Brush-drawn vignette mask, you can exert just about any change you want to the masked area - unlike Vignette.

It would be great the Radial Filter would allow adjustable "rectangular-ness" to the mask. I adore the Radial Filter and use it on nearly all images.

John Caldwell

What about using linear grads to do the same thing in a very rectangle way.

As for the "muddy gray", my understanding, and I could be wrong, is the Vignette is basically a layer of black over top, not an actual adjustment to the image. But, like I said, that is how I understand it, not how it might actually be.

[John Caldwell]

What about using linear grads to do the same thing in a very rectangle way.

I've tried just that with the Gradient tool. The gradients overlap at the corners, essentially doubling the effect at the corners. It's also truly rectangular. The nice thing about tool Vignette is that it's only truly rectangular if you dictate that.

John-