Web Development: How to Make a Photoshop Vignette Effect Action

How to Make a Photoshop Vignette Effect Action

Final product image — What You'll Be Creating

In this beginner's tutorial, we'll take a look at some Photoshop action basics and create a customizable vignette action—ready to use and adapt in any way you like! So grab your favorite photograph, and let's get creating!

What You'll Need

You'll need the following assets in order to complete this project:

Now, let's get started!

What Is a Vignette?

Around the Image

We're not talking about short-form writing or anything like that in this tutorial—we're referring to a visual effect where an image has a decrease in brightness (or saturation) around the outside. A vignette typically has a rounded appearance, like a camera's lens, and often refers to an effect relating to photography.

However, in terms of Photoshop, we're digitally creating (or enhancing) these photo effects.

Christmas Vignette Imagery — Christmas Presents with Candle by photocreo from Envato Elements

So Why Bother With This Effect?

Well, notice how it potentially helps establish emphasis and/or a focal point. It can be utilized to create or emphasize mood. It can also help push an aesthetic—for example, it might work well with a vintage look.

Vignettes can work nicely with portraits, but the only limits, really, are your project's goals and/or your creativity, when it comes to Photoshop effects!

Portrait with Vignette — Pretty Smiling Woman in Blue by FlamingoImages from Envato Elements

1. How to Create Photoshop Actions

Step 1

To begin, let's look at the basics of how Photoshop actions work. Then, we can build on these fundamentals and construct our Photoshop vignette effect.

Start up a New Document. To do so, go to File > New.

I'm going to work at 5 inches high by 7 inches wide for this demonstration, but you're welcome to work at any size you'd like!

Once you're happy with your settings, click Create.

Step 2

Now, let's open up a test image of your choice. I used this image of a woman looking away.

Copy, Paste, and Resize your image to fit into your document the way you'd like.

Again, we're ultimately going to apply our vignette effect to this image, but we'll start off with some Photoshop action basics, to illustrate how they work.

Step 3

Let's start by opening up the Actions panel. Go to Window > Actions to open it up.

This is what the panel looks like, below.

Step 4

So what does this panel do? Photoshop actions basically record a process that you can then replay.

Here's an overview of the items at the bottom of the panel that we can use to create and use our actions:

Stop Recording—this button stops the recording of actions. So, unless you're currently recording, it will not be selectable. The button itself looks like a square.

Begin Recording—starts up the recording of a new set of actions. The button looks like a circle.

Play Selection—this button replays our action. So, for example, when we're ready to run our action in our project, this is the button we would select. The button itself looks like a triangle.

Create New Set—this is a collection of actions. For example, you might want to keep multiple actions in one place, for organization purposes. The button looks like a folder.

Create New Action—use this button to create a new action. The button itself looks like a page icon.

Delete—use this button to delete an action. It's the icon that looks like a trash bin.

Step 5

Let's start out by creating a new Action Set. Click on the New Set button, and give it a name that you'll remember. I called mine "Vignette Actions".

Step 6

Now, let's create a new action. Click on the Create New Action button. It'll bring up the following dialog box, with the following options:

Name—give your action a name; anything will do! I like to name my actions something relevant and easy to remember. In this case I called mine "Test Action".

Set—this is what set you'd like your action located in, for organizational purposes. We've already created a set called "Vignette Actions", so I put mine there.

Function Key—you can assign your action a function key, if you'd like to use it as a shortcut. You can also assign whether or not you'd like Shift or Control used in this shortcut. Be aware of this information, but we won't use it in this example.

Color—this is purely for visual purposes, just like adding colors in the Layers panel. You can color code your actions (exclusive to the panel), if you'd like.

Once you're happy with your values, click Record.

Step 7

Once you've clicked Record, take a look at the Actions panel. You'll notice that the Record Button is active—we are currently recording an action. This means that, if you do something in Photoshop, it's going to record it. For example, if you move something or use the Fill tool, it'll record that at this point.

For the sake of an example, let's select the Text Tool and type "Hello!" Notice how this is reflected in our Actions.

Once you've done so, click the Stop Button in your Actions panel. Now, we've finished recording.

Step 8

Now, let's use our newly created action. Delete the Text Layer with "Hello" on it.

Then, select your action and click Play.

Voila! The text is recreated for us. See how this could be useful for a wide variety of things? I often use actions for repetitive tasks and special effects.