Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Vignetting is a lens problem that causes the corners of your photo to appear
darker than the rest of the photo. This problem is usually more pronounced
when you're using a wide-angle lens, but can also be caused by a whole host
of other lens issues. Now, a little darkness in the edges is considered a problem,
but many photographers (myself included) like to exaggerate this edge
darkening and employ it as a lighting effect in portraits, which we covered
in Chapter 4. Here's how to fix it if it happens to you:
Vignetting
Step One:
In the photo shown here, you can see how
the corner areas look darkened and shad-
owed. Scroll down to the Lens Corrections
panel in the Develop module's right side
Panels area, click on Profile at the top, then
turn on the Enable Profile Corrections
checkbox, and Lightroom will try to auto-
matically remove the edge vignetting, based
on the make and model of the lens you
used (it learns all this from the EXIF data
embedded in your image. See page 206 for
more on how it reads this data). If the image
still needs a little correction (as this one
did), you can try the Vignetting slider under
Amount. If you still think the automatic
way isn't working well enough, you can do
it manually by clicking on Manual (next to
Profile), and you'll see a section for Lens
Vignetting in the middle.
Step Two:
There are two vignetting sliders here: the first
controls the amount of brightening in the
edge areas, and the second slider lets you
adjust how far in toward the center of your
photo the corners will be brightened. In this
photo, the edge vignetting is pretty much
contained in the corners, and doesn't spread
too far into the center of the photo. So, start
to slowly click-and-drag the Amount slider
to the right and as you do, keep an eye on
the corners of your image. As you drag, the
corners get brighter, and your job is to stop
when the brightness of the corners matches
the rest of the photo (as shown here). If the
vignetting had extended further into the
center of the photo, then you'd drag the
Midpoint slider to the left to make your
brightening cover a larger area. That's how
easy removing this problem is.
