AI Vignette Effect

A vignette is a decision about where the eye is allowed to go. The instruction behind this panel is emphatic: the central subject stays bright, sharp, and highly contrasted while the surroundings and corners darken gradually but significantly, so the frame reads as depth rather than a grey border pasted on top.

What the effect adds beyond dark corners

Two details in the built-in request separate this from a corner-burn slider. The transition is asked for as smooth and atmospheric, with no harsh lines, which matters on a photo that already has a bright band near the edge. And the darkened area may carry a desaturated or slightly cool or warm tint, so the corners lose colour and shift temperature and not merely brightness — that is what makes a frame feel cinematic rather than underexposed. The only field is the optional prompt box, whose hint asks for the subject, style, composition, and important details. Use it on those two variables: "cool blue corners", "warm amber falloff", "keep the corners readable rather than black".

Photos that gain from a heavier frame

• A subject shot against a competing bright background, where a white wall or an overcast sky is stealing attention from the face.
• A flat-lit interior that needs a sense of depth the lighting did not provide.
• A portrait where you want the shoulders, hands, and clutter behind the subject to fall away.

The reverse case is a photo whose important detail sits near the edges — a group spread across the frame, a caption, a line of small text. Darkening there removes legibility, not mood.

Judge the falloff at full size, not in the thumbnail

Look for banding first — rings in the darkened area instead of a continuous gradient, the most common flaw in a generated vignette and nearly invisible at preview size. Then check whether the subject's own edge has gone muddy where the falloff starts, particularly hair and shoulders. Check skin tone in the shadowed part of the face against the lit part, because a tint applied to the corners can creep inward and make a cheek sallow. Then decide whether anything you needed in the corners has been flattened into near-black. Compare against the original file rather than trusting the memory of it.

Frequently asked questions

about the AI vignette effect

Can I control how dark the corners get?

There is no strength dial on this panel, so the prompt box is the only place to ask for it, in words that describe the amount rather than the effect: "subtle darkening at the borders", "deep cinematic falloff that almost reaches black". Write one, look at the result, then write the opposite and compare the two files side by side.

Will a cool or warm tint change the white balance of my whole photo?

The request puts the tint on the darkened edges and keeps the centre bright and highly contrasted, so the honest answer is to check. Hold the result up against the original and compare a neutral area in the middle of the frame with a neutral area near the corner. If both have shifted, the photo is now colour-graded rather than vignetted, and that is worth deciding on deliberately.

Does the vignette flatten my subject as well as the background?

It should not, and the instruction says the subject stays sharp and bright, but a heavy falloff can eat the part of the subject that reaches toward the edge. The typical casualties are outstretched arms, hair, and anything that breaks the frame border. If your subject does that, say so in the prompt box and name the area to keep bright.

What images can I send through this panel?

JPEG, JPG, PNG, and WEBP uploads. Because the effect is a redraw rather than an overlay, keep your original file until you have compared the result at full zoom, and remember that free previews on ImageFk export with an ImageFk mark on them.