Add a Vignette to a Photo Online
Darken the edges to pull the eye toward your subject, with independent control over strength, where the falloff begins, how gradual it is, and what colour the edges fade to. A smoothstep curve keeps the gradient free of visible banding. Live preview, batch and ZIP, entirely in your browser.
Drop images here
or click to browse · or paste with Ctrl+V
JPG · PNG · WebP · GIF · BMP · AVIF
How dark the edges go
Where the falloff starts
How gradual the transition is
Shape
Edge colour
Presets
Your images are never uploaded. The falloff is calculated inside this browser tab.
People also use
Everything this tool does
Three independent controls
Amount, midpoint and feather are separate, so you can set how dark, how far in it starts, and how gradual it is without one fighting the other.
Frame or circular falloff
Follow frame stretches the falloff into an ellipse matching your aspect ratio; circular keeps a true circle for a spotlight effect.
Any edge colour
Fade to black, white, deep blue, warm brown or a custom pick. Each pixel is blended toward that colour rather than simply dimmed.
Smoothstep curve
The transition uses a smoothstep rather than a straight ramp, which removes the hard shoulder that causes visible rings in skies.
Drag-to-compare preview
A split handle wipes between original and vignetted at preview resolution, which is the only reliable way to judge a subtle effect.
Correct on every aspect ratio
The falloff is computed from each image's own dimensions, so portraits, landscapes and squares in one batch all get proportionate results.
Batch with one ZIP
Apply identical settings across a whole shoot and download everything as one archive built in your browser.
Change settings without re-uploading
Adjust anything after a run and the button becomes Re-apply. Files stay in the queue so experimenting costs nothing.
Transparency preserved
The alpha channel is untouched for PNG and WebP output, so only visible pixels are darkened.
Nothing is uploaded
No server, no queue, nothing stored to delete. Close the tab and every trace goes with it.
Settings for common looks
Vignette settings interact, so a number that works on a portrait will look wrong on a wide landscape. These are sensible starting points, with the reason behind each one.
| Look | Amount | Midpoint | Feather | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Invisible guide for a portrait | 20-30 | 55 | 70-80 | Enough to steer the eye, not enough for anyone to notice. |
| Standard finishing vignette | 50-60 | 40 | 60 | The classic look most photo apps apply by default. |
| Dramatic, subject-focused | 80-90 | 25 | 50 | Tight and obvious. Works when the subject is well centred. |
| Wide landscape | 35-45 | 50 | 85 | Wide frames need a longer feather or the sides band badly. |
| High-key white fade | 60-70 | 45 | 65 | Fades outward to white for an airy product or beauty look. |
| Circular spotlight | 85-95 | 15 | 45 | Circular shape plus low midpoint isolates the very centre. |
| Print, where paper darkens | 15-25 | 60 | 80 | Paper already loses edge brightness, so go lighter than on screen. |
3
independent sliders
2
falloff shapes
0
files uploaded
Any
edge colour
ZIP
batch download
Free
no account needed
FlipMyFormat vs other vignette tools
| Capability | FlipMyFormat | Typical free tool |
|---|---|---|
| Files stay in your browser | ||
| Separate midpoint and feather | ||
| Choose the edge colour | ||
| Frame-proportional or circular shape | ||
| Smoothstep curve to avoid banding | ||
| Batch ZIP download without paying | ||
| No watermark on the output |
How to add a vignette that does not look fake
A vignette fails for one of two reasons, and neither is that it was too strong. The first is the shoulder: if the transition from untouched to darkened happens over a short distance, your eye reads it as an object in the picture — a ring, a dark corner, something that was not there when the photo was taken — rather than as light behaving the way light behaves. Real lens falloff is extremely gradual, spread across most of the frame, which is why a high feather with a modest amount almost always looks more convincing than a low feather with a modest amount, even though the darkest corner pixel is identical in both. The second failure is geometry. A vignette assumes your subject is in the middle, and if it is not, you are darkening the thing you wanted people to look at; on an off-centre composition either skip the vignette or crop first so the subject moves toward the centre, because there is no slider that fixes a misplaced falloff. Beyond that, order matters more than people expect: set exposure, contrast and colour before you vignette, because darkening the edges changes how bright the whole frame appears and you will misjudge every earlier adjustment if you do them afterwards. And crop before, never after — a crop applied to an already-vignetted image leaves the dark centre of the falloff sitting somewhere off to one side, which is immediately obvious even to someone who could not tell you why.
- 1
Add your images
Drag them in, click to browse, or paste with Ctrl+V. Mixed orientations are fine — each gets its own proportions.
- 2
Shape the falloff
Start from a preset, then set amount for depth, midpoint for how much stays clean, and feather for how gradual it is.
- 3
Apply and save
Press Apply, then download each file or take the batch as one ZIP. Change anything and press Re-apply.
How the falloff is calculated
Distance, normalised
Every pixel gets a distance from the centre, scaled so that the corner sits at 1 and the middle at 0. In follow-frame mode the horizontal and vertical distances are each divided by half the width and half the height, which makes the falloff an ellipse matching your aspect ratio. In circular mode both are divided by half of the shorter side instead, producing a true circle. That single choice is why the same numbers look completely different on a square and on a panorama.
Smoothstep, not a straight line
The distance is turned into a strength by subtracting the midpoint, dividing by the feather and clamping between 0 and 1 — then passing that through a smoothstep curve, which eases in at the start and out at the end instead of ramping linearly. A linear ramp has a sharp kink where the effect begins and where it reaches full strength, and those kinks are exactly what the eye picks up as a visible ring in a clear sky. The result is then used to blend each pixel toward your chosen edge colour, so the effect is a colour mix rather than a simple brightness subtraction.
What people use it for
Portrait finishing
A gentle darkening keeps attention on the face and quietly hides a busy background without any masking work.
Product photography
A white fade blends the edges of a shot into a white page layout so the product appears to float.
Wedding and event albums
Apply identical settings across a whole gallery so hundreds of images share one consistent finish.
Book and album covers
A strong vignette creates space at the edges where title text can sit legibly over the image.
Video thumbnails
Darkened corners make overlaid text far easier to read at small sizes without adding a solid box behind it.
Vintage and film looks
Heavy falloff with a warm brown edge colour reproduces the character of old lenses and expired film.
Real estate photos
A light vignette stops bright window edges from pulling the eye out of the room.
Presentation slides
Fading a background photo toward the slide colour lets text sit on top without a separate overlay layer.
Six tips worth knowing
Raise feather before you lower amount. Most vignettes that look fake are strong but abrupt, not simply too strong.
Crop first, vignette second. Cropping afterwards leaves the falloff centred on the old frame, which is instantly noticeable.
On wide panoramas, use follow frame and push feather above 80. Circular falloff on a wide image crushes the sides long before the top.
If a clear sky shows rings, the gradient is banding in 8-bit. Lower the amount, raise the feather, and export PNG rather than JPG.
A white vignette on a white page is a genuinely useful trick for product shots — the edges disappear into the layout instead of ending at a hard boundary.
For print, go about a third lighter than looks right on screen. Paper loses edge brightness on its own and the two effects stack.
Troubleshooting
There is a visible ring in the sky
The gradient is banding across 8-bit levels. Raise the feather, lower the amount, and export as PNG so JPEG compression does not exaggerate the steps.
It darkened my subject
Your subject is not centred. A vignette always darkens the edges, so crop to move the subject inward, or skip the effect on that frame.
The sides are much darker than the top
You are on circular shape with a wide image. Switch to follow frame so the falloff matches the aspect ratio.
Corners went completely black
Amount is near maximum with a low midpoint, so the corners have reached the edge colour entirely. Raise the midpoint or reduce the amount.
Frequently asked questions
What is a vignette in photography?
A vignette is a gradual darkening towards the edges and corners of a picture. It happens naturally in lenses, especially wide apertures and cheap optics, because less light reaches the corners of the sensor. Added deliberately, it pulls the viewer's eye toward the centre of the frame, which is why it has been a standard finishing move in portraiture for more than a century.
How do I add a vignette to a photo online?
Drop your image onto the tool, then use the four sliders. Amount sets how strong the darkening is, midpoint sets how far from the centre it begins, feather controls how gradual the transition is, and shape decides whether it follows the frame or stays circular. The preview updates live and nothing is uploaded.
What does the midpoint slider do?
It sets the radius at which darkening starts. A high midpoint keeps a large clean area in the middle and confines the effect to the very corners. A low midpoint starts the darkening close to the centre, which produces a tight spotlight rather than a subtle edge fade. It is the control that decides how much of your picture stays untouched.
What is the difference between feather and amount?
Amount is how dark it goes; feather is how long it takes to get there. A high amount with a low feather gives a hard, obvious ring which usually looks like a mistake. The same amount with a high feather spreads the same darkening over a much longer distance and reads as natural light falloff. If a vignette looks artificial, feather is almost always the fix rather than amount.
Why does my vignette have visible banding?
Banding happens when a gradient crosses many pixels but only has 256 brightness levels to work with, so the steps become visible, especially in a clear sky. This tool uses a smoothstep curve rather than a straight line to reduce it. If you still see rings, lowering the amount or raising the feather helps, and exporting to PNG avoids JPEG compression making the bands worse.
What does the shape setting change?
Follow frame stretches the vignette into an ellipse that matches your image proportions, so a wide panorama gets a wide oval. Circular keeps a true circle regardless of the aspect ratio, which on a wide image means the left and right edges darken far more than the top and bottom. Follow frame is the natural choice for photographs; circular is for a deliberate spotlight effect.
Can I make a white vignette instead of a black one?
Yes. The edge colour is fully configurable, so you can fade to white for a high-key, airy look, or to a deep blue or warm brown for a graded film feel. The maths blends each pixel toward whatever colour you choose rather than simply subtracting brightness.
Is a coloured vignette the same as a colour grade?
Not quite. A grade shifts colour across the whole image; this only tints where the falloff reaches, so the centre stays exactly as it was and only the edges take the colour. It is a useful way to add atmosphere without touching your subject, and it stacks well with a separate global adjustment.
Are my photos uploaded to a server?
No. The falloff is calculated and applied pixel by pixel in your own browser using the canvas API. Your image never leaves your device, and the tool continues working if your connection drops after the page has loaded.
Can I apply a vignette to several photos at once?
Yes. Add as many as you like and identical settings are applied to all of them. Because the falloff is calculated from each image's own dimensions, photos of different sizes and orientations all get a correctly proportioned vignette rather than a stretched copy of the first one.
Does adding a vignette reduce image quality?
The operation itself only changes pixel values in the affected area and adds no noise. Very dark areas can lose a little shadow detail because values are pushed toward the floor. Saving as PNG or lossless WebP adds nothing further; saving as JPG adds one generation of compression, and gradients are exactly what JPEG handles worst.
Which file formats are supported?
Any format your browser can decode: JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF (first frame), BMP, and AVIF or HEIC where supported. You can keep the original format or export as PNG, JPG or WebP.
Is transparency preserved?
Yes for PNG and WebP output. The alpha channel is untouched, so a transparent background stays transparent and only the visible pixels are darkened. JPG has no alpha, so transparent areas are filled with the colour you choose first.
Can I remove a vignette rather than add one?
Not with this tool. Removing lens vignetting properly requires knowing the lens profile and inverting its specific falloff curve, and guessing at it tends to introduce colour blotches in the corners instead. This tool adds a vignette; it does not correct one.
Should I add a vignette before or after other edits?
After. Adjust exposure, contrast and colour first, because a vignette changes how bright the frame looks overall and will make you misjudge those. Crop first too — cropping after adding a vignette leaves the darkening off-centre relative to the new frame.
How strong should a vignette be?
For photographs that should look untouched, somewhere between 20 and 40 with a high feather, which is enough to guide the eye without anyone noticing. Anything above about 70 reads as a deliberate stylistic choice rather than natural falloff, which is fine as long as that is what you intended.
Does this remove EXIF data?
Yes. Re-encoding from the canvas drops camera model, GPS coordinates, timestamps and other metadata. If you want to strip metadata without altering the picture, use the remove EXIF tool instead.
Does the tool add a watermark or need an account?
No to both. No sign-up, no email wall, no daily cap and no watermark. The output is your image with the vignette applied and nothing else added.