Here's a quick way to use Photoshop's Adjustment Layers and Blending Modes to create a subtle vignette effect on an image to draw the viewer's eye into the subject.


Picture 2 vignette06



Step 1:

Draw an Elliptical Marquee Tool selection roughly around your subject.


Picture 3

Step 2:

Select>Inverse. ( CMD/CTL+SHIFT+I )

Step 3:

Create a new Levels Adjustment Layer.

vignette01



Step 4:

Change the Layer Blending Mode to Multiply

Step 5:

Add a Gaussian Blur. Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur.

Step 6:

Adjust the amount of blur to your liking. I tend to land around 200 for the best subtle blending. When done, hit OK.

vignette03



As a variation to really darken the corners, repeat the steps but draw your ellipse a lot larger.


vignette05 vignette06


To record this in an action, you'll need to start recording after you manually draw the Marquee selection starting at step 2. This will give you the most flexibility to center and draw interest to your subject.