One of the more creative features of Aperture 2.0 is the Vignetting tool. I say creative because how you use the tool is largely based on your taste and the photo itself. There’s no simple automatic vignetting preset that you can equally apply to just any photo and its application will be effective. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t create a preset for vignetting as a optimal place to get started.
Where to Find It
First off, the Vignette tool doesn’t appear by default when you open the Adjustments panel in Aperture 2.0. You have to manually open it by clicking on the left + button at the top of the Inspector HUD/Adjustments panel and then selecting Vignette. It will appear at the bottom of the panel. If you find yourself using the Vignette tool a lot, you can assign a shortcut key stroke for it by clicking on Aperture>Commands>Customize in the menu bar.
De-vignetting
One function of the Vignetting tool entails decreasing lens burn that might occur on a photo during capture. I don’t have an example of that, but if you have a photo where the edges of the image are darkened, you could use the vignette tool to decrease, i.e, get rid of the burned edges. Simply slide the controls to the left to lighten the burn edges. I’ve never had to devignette an image, but I’m sure it will work on digital images that have that issue.
Creative Vignetting
I use the Vignette tool in a creative way to bring more focus on the subject. After I do all the basic exposure and enhancement adjustments (the tools above the small Vignette panel) to a photo, I select the Expourse setting of the Vignette tool and slide the controls to the right for the desired effect. The Amount setting controls how dark you want the edges of the photo; whereas the Size control sets how for out the burned edges will go from the edges of the photo.
Switching the pop-up menu button to Gamma makes for sometimes very subtle changes but it seems to primarily affect the color intensity of the pixels in its application. Notice, in this example, the gamma adjustment seems to increase the green of the leaf and darkens the edges even more.
Gamma Vignette
In this last photo, I applied vignetting, but I didn’t do it much because of the dark clothing she was wearing.Comparing the two, I think the vignette brings more focus on her face in the photo.
The Vignetting tool is not one that you will use all the time, but it’s great to experiment with it and see how it impacts your images. In Photoshop, you have a little more contorl over the vignetting of a photo, but it takes a little longer create the effect. So it’s nice to have it in Aperture 2.0.
process.
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In this screencast, I show how I use Aperture’s adjustment tools to improve upon the shadow and highlight areas of a portrait image.
