Is a Vignette Inside a Vignette Too Much? When creating an image of a male Cardinal's bright colors against the pale dead-grass in my back yard, it soon became evident that the intense...

Shooter41 Loc: Wichita, KS

When creating an image of a male Cardinal's bright colors against the pale dead-grass in my back yard, it soon became evident that the intense lightness of the faded dead grass was too bright and took my attention away from the subject. In desperation, I created a hard vignette used extensively back in the day. The grass was still too bright. So I used a soft edged vignette inside the hard vignette. What do you think?

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photophile Loc: Lakewood, Ohio, USA

Shooter41 wrote:

When creating an image of a male Cardinal's bright colors against the pale dead-grass in my back yard, it soon became evident that the intense lightness of the faded dead grass was too bright and took my attention away from the subject. In desperation, I created a hard vignette used extensively back in the day. The grass was still too bright. So I used a soft edged vignette inside the hard vignette. What do you think?

I think it worked well.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Shooter41 wrote:

When creating an image of a male Cardinal's bright colors against the pale dead-grass in my back yard, it soon became evident that the intense lightness of the faded dead grass was too bright and took my attention away from the subject. In desperation, I created a hard vignette used extensively back in the day. The grass was still too bright. So I used a soft edged vignette inside the hard vignette. What do you think?

Looks cool to me.

Ourspolair

The effect works, but I would crop the whole thing much tighter. The mass of the bird should, in my opinion, be moved left w.r.t. the black frame created by the hard vignette.

Shooter41 Loc: Wichita, KS

Dear lamiaceae...Looks cool to me also.

joecichjr Loc: Chicago S. Suburbs, Illinois, USA

Shooter41 wrote:

When creating an image of a male Cardinal's bright colors against the pale dead-grass in my back yard, it soon became evident that the intense lightness of the faded dead grass was too bright and took my attention away from the subject. In desperation, I created a hard vignette used extensively back in the day. The grass was still too bright. So I used a soft edged vignette inside the hard vignette. What do you think?

Depends on how it looks

Shooter41 Loc: Wichita, KS

Ourspolair wrote:

The effect works, but I would crop the whole thing much tighter. The mass of the bird should, in my opinion, be moved left w.r.t. the black frame created by the hard vignette.

Dear Ourspolair...Thank you for your comments. With regard to your suggestions for tighter cropping; moving the mass of the bird to the left because of the black frame created by the hard vignette, is this similar to what you recommended? (If not, would you mind downloading the image and do an edit and share your expertise?)

(Download)

tcthome Loc: NJ

Looks ok to me. Not every pic is gonna be the one & you have to work with what you have. The only other option would be to replace the whole back round.

cameraf4 Loc: Delaware

I think you just like to say "vignette", Don. I like the image - think you did a good job. Has kind of a 3D feel to me, like it is printed on an egg.

Shooter41 Loc: Wichita, KS

cameraf4 wrote:

I think you just like to say "vignette", Don. I like the image - think you did a good job. Has kind of a 3D feel to me, like it is printed on an egg.

Dear cameraf4...Thank you for your comment. You are correct. "Vignette, vignette, vignette!" (I would print the image on an egg, but I can't get an egg inside my printer.)

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

Works fro me.

lnl Loc: SWFL

My first thought was also it looked printed on an egg and an interesting image. The tight crop is also nice but I think the original has more interest.

Ourspolair

Shooter41 wrote:

Dear Ourspolair...Thank you for your comments. With regard to your suggestions for tighter cropping; moving the mass of the bird to the left because of the black frame created by the hard vignette, is this similar to what you recommended? (If not, would you mind downloading the image and do an edit and share your expertise?)

Not quite.
I tried to make a change to your original image, but could not achieve the result I was thinking of, because of the existing black "vignette, but I did do some measurements.
If you place the centre of the black "vignette" frame at the centre of a line drawn from the tip of the bird's tail to the beak and draw the oval out to about 1/2" beyond the tail, you will achieve the result I was thinking of.