Vignetting – a creative tool

The Vignetting tool in Capture One 6 can not only be used to compensate for Light Falloff caused by the lens, but also as a creative tool that allows you to change the whole expression of the image.

You can create both negative and positive Vignettings. By applying Vignetting, you help the spectator to focus more on the central part of the scene.

In the image on the left, a negative Vignetting has been applied to frame the windsurfer and darken the sky, which creates drama in the image. The image on the right is without Vignetting.

The Vignetting values are expressed in terms of EV.  If you apply Vignetting of +2EV, it means that the image has been brightened the equivalent of 2 f-stops at the edges.

Creative use of Vignetting for portrait images can also be very powerful:

The same image with different amounts of Vignetting applied. The image to the left has a positive Vignetting. The center image is without Vignetting and the right image has negative Vignetting.  For both positive and negative Vignetting, I have used a local adjustments layer to ensure that the model’s face maintains the right exposure.