How to achieve a vignette effect without post processing?

Question

I was searching a technique for making the vignette effect without image editing.

Maybe with a low F number and a short focal lenght?

If is useful, I use a Nikkor AF-S DX 18-55 F3.5 - 5.5 G and a Nikon D3200.

Thanks.

Answer 1

It's not so much about technique as it is equipment. One of the few things you can do as far as technique would be to use the widest aperture your lens has, maybe f/3.5 in your case. This is generally where you will see the most vignetting on a kit lens.

If you have a prime lens, I.e. 50mm f/1.8, it is typical to see distortion/vignetting with the aperture wide open at f/1.8. If you have a wide or ultra wide angle lens, typically you will see light fall off/vignetting at the widest focal length such as 12mm.

Another source of vignetting can be caused by obstruction of the optical path outside of the lens. This could be from a lens hood or a filter. Instead of using a "slim" filter you could look for one without the designation. You could also add an oversized lens hood although in my opinion this would be too obvious and not very desirable in the resulting image.

Another option would be to buy a lens that is for this purpose. Old manual focus lenses are great for this and can be found inexpensively. A modern lens manufacturer has made effects like this their entire business; see Lens Baby.

Finally, I'll leave you with a personal option. Vignetting can be beneficial to draw the viewer to the subject, add mood, or depth to images. But do consider using some restraint as having a thick vignette in every image of a portfolio can be slightly fatiguing to viewers.

Answer 2

I was searching a technique for making the vignette effect without image editing.

Here's a DIY solution that costs next to nothing and offers lots of flexibility.

1. Cut a hole in a piece of opaque paper. Black construction paper would be a fine choice. The hole should be somewhat smaller than the front of your lens; the smaller the hole, the more vignetting you'll get in your image.

2. Hold the paper over the front of your lens with the hole centered on the lens. You can use a bit of tape to hold it in place.

3. Take a picture. A smaller aperture will make the vignetting more defined with sharp focus in the middle; a large aperture will give you less distinct vignetting with a softer focus over the whole image.

Experiment with different sized holes, and even different shapes. You can also use a piece of cardboard tube to vary the distance from your cutout to the lens, or use the tube alone to simulate the kind of vignetting you'd get from a too-long lens hood. You can also vary the material: the last time I did this, I used a not-so-opaque orange Post-It® Note, and the resulting image had orange corners instead of black ones from the light filtering through the orange paper.

Answer 3

One would normally want to avoid optical vignetting. Most of the times you will see lenses and lens hoods advertised for causing as little as possible vignetting.

The problem with the vignetting done directly from the lens (optical vignetting) and not during post processing is that you cannot control the intensity, length and fading of the effect to match what you were actually planing in the picture.

Also, the way you are planing on achieving the vignetting, would only work on short focal lengths which might also limit your possibilities of framing properly or obtaining the benefits of a longer focal length.

If yet you want to obtain the vignetting directly from the camera/lens, I would try to build a lens hood out of paper. This would have the advantage that you can easily modify it to meet your requirements for the effect (by trial and error till you reach the desired amount of vignetting). You could then further experiment with different paper colours: black, white, red, yellow, to achieve even more interesting vignetting. Be careful, the paper needs to be matt. A glossy paper would add unwanted reflections and flares.