TUTORIAL: How to Add a Vignette Border to a Photo in Photoshop

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Today I will show you how to add a vignette border to your photos. Below you see a rather exaggerated example. You will be able to determine for yourself the particulars of your creation.



1. First open the photo you wold like to add the vignette to. Create a new layer on top of the original photo by clicking on the "add new layer" button in the layers panel, or by clicking "Shift + Cntrl + N" (Shift + Cmd + N for mac).




2. Once this new layer has been created you will want to fill it with black. Go to Edit-->Fill and then choose black from the dropdown menu or foreground if you have black selected as your foreground color.




3. With your "Rectangular Marque" tool, create a selection to be cut out leaving the darkened border. Make sure you feather this selection...see top tool bar for creating the feather depth. Feathering softens and creates the faded look of the selection...here I have used a 50 px feather which is rather severe, but I wanted to be able to give an easy to see example.

Once you have your selection, click "Delete" to remove the center of the layer leaving behind the faded black border.




4. Now you can adjust the opacity of the vignette layer to suit your needs. Playing around with the opacity and the feathering depth are pretty much all the adjusting you will need to find a look you like.




5. Now remove the selection by going to Select-->Deselect, or simply clicking Ctrl + D (Cmd + D for Mac).




6. You can further adjust the vignette by adjusting the opacity on the vignette layer. That's it!

Have fun with this and don't forget to try different feathering depths, opacity levels and even try using different shapes to make your selection.

Let me know if you have any questions and please leave comments if you find this tutorial helpful...