How to create a Vignette effect in Photoshop

How to create a Vignette effect in Photoshop 

In this tutorial I will show you how to create a vignette effect in Adobe Photoshop, as photoshop itself doesn't have a built in Vignette tool.

Final Result:

Let's get to it!

Step 1:

As usual, we need to start off by making a document, or if you already have one you want to apply the vignette effect too, use that one.

Step 2:

Select the gradient tool from the toolbox, or use the shortcut (G) to automatically select it.

Step 3:

Once the gradient tool is selected, you need to click the "Radial" button on top of the document. This makes it so the gradient is circular instead of linear.

Step 4:

Now create a new layer above the first layer. If you multiple layers, make sure the new Layer is above all the others. To keep it clean, you can also rename it to "Vignette layer".

Step 5:

Once you've created the new layer, click and drag to make a line. The further away from the middle you choose as your starting point, the more white space you will get in the middle.

I chose to draw mine diagonally, as that will make the circle bigger, giving me a more smoother vignette effect.
Release the mouse button once you're happy. You can always undo (Ctrl + Z)  if you're not happy with the radial gradient you made.

Step 6:

Once you release your mouse button, it should look something like this. As you can see in the picture, the black slowly fades into white. But we don't want it like this, we want it inverted.

Step 7:

Make sure the layer you created (The one with the gradient) is selected. When you've selected it, you need to invert it (Ctrl + i). This will invert the gradient, meaning that instead of black fading into white, its white fading to black.

Step 8:

It should look something like this after you've inverted it. Now this already is a vignette, but it's a little too dark on the corners for my taste. How do we fix that?

Step 9:

If you want to tone down the blacks, select the gradient layer, and lower the fill percentage (Color fill). I put mine to 61%, but you can change yours to whatever you like the best. Just mess around with it until you find something you like.

Step 10:

This is the outcome of this tutorial. A vignette which goes from black to white. If you think there's too little white space in the middle, draw a new gradient, but start further out from the middle this time. And if you don't want to see the black gradient on the sides, and only in the corners, drag the line further out. It can be dragged outside the canvas too.