Hi everyone, it’s Sharon here (aka skyezak) and I’m here to show you a technique in Photoshop that you may not be aware of – the custom gradient tool.  This tool has many uses but today I’m going to step you through how to create a vignette.

Just a reminder that the Saturday Special Challenges are now going to step you through a technique to help you improve your scrapping skills.

Remember that you will have until the end of the month to complete the challenge.  When you complete the challenge you will earn 1 point!  If you use a newly released product (within the past 7 days) from the Scrap Matters store on your challenge layout, you earn an additional point!! How good is that - 2 points!

And my favourite layout at the end of the challenge will earn another point!

So let’s get started.  My instructions are written in Photoshop CS3 so I’m hoping they work in PSE too as it’s been quite a while since I used that program!  You can create a vignette a few different ways, but this is the easiest I have found.  For those of you who don’t know what a vignette is, it’s basically a soft, fading effect which I’m going to use around the edges of my photos.

Firstly, you’ll need to open your photo and edit it accordingly.  Once you’re happy with it, create a new layer and hit ‘D’ (or the small black/white swatch – see Screen Shot #1) which sets your default Foreground/Background colours to black and white.  Then select your Gradient Tool (see Screen Shot #1).

You’ll notice up the top of your screen, that you have all the Gradient options available.  Click the drop down arrow to select FOREGROUND TO TRANSPARENT if it’s not already selected and by default, Photoshop will select LINEAR GRADIENT which is what I typically use.  There are a few other gradient types that give you different effects, so you may want to play around with them.  Refer to Screen Shot #2.  All the other gradients are typically colour to colour rather than colour to transparent.  Once we get going, it will make more sense, but we’re going to try and create a shadowing around the border of our photo.

Next, if you roll your cursor over your screen, you’ll notice that it’s changed to a ‘+’ symbol.  If you click near the border of your photograph and drag in maybe a centimetre or so from the edge and let go of the mouse, you’ll notice that a nice shadow will appear.  This is your gradient running from black (your default colour) to transparent.  If you click from the corner of your photo, drag and then let go, it will appear only in the corner.  If you make sure you drag in a straight line, your gradient will remain straight or if you drag the cursor on an angle, the gradient will be on the same angle.  If you want a perfectly straight gradient, just hold your SHIFT key down while you click and drag.  Once you have a gradient down, you can then go over it again and make it larger and darker if you like.  You can even change the Opacity of the gradient on your Layer menu if you want it to be a bit more subtle.

Here’s my sample at 100% Opacity.  I went around the edges twice and in from the corners slightly too.

And here’s one at 50% Opacity.

Here’s a shot of my parents on their wedding day.

And here’s the same shot at 66% Opacity.

Here’s the same shot at 66% Opacity but this time I’ve chosen a dark shade of chocolate brown as the colour rather than black.

The differences might seem subtle, but they do give a nice soft effect.

You can also try this on the edge of your layouts to give it a burnt look.  Change it to a colour such as brown and you’ll get a nice aged effect like I’ve done in the photo above.  Have a play and see what you can come up with in your layout!  And here’s my layout that I’ve created using the gradients around the border of my pics. 

Credits for this layout:  Andilynn Designs – FLORA BRUSHES, Jen Lin Designs – RUSTICANA & Britt-ish Designs DATE STAMPED all of which are available here at Scrap Matters.

And here’s a couple of layouts from our fab CT members using gradients around their photos.  The first one is from Mary (aka littlehiccup) using products from Wide Open Spaces, Motor Mania, Artistic License, and A Halloween Nightmare all by Britt-ish Designs.

The second sample layout is from Kim (aka kimbytx) and she’s used products from Digi Keepsakes new Boy on Wheels kit and template pack 7.

You don’t have to use Scrap Matters products (but we sure love it when you do) and once you post in the Gallery, don’t forget to link up your layout to the Saturday Special thread in the forum here so we can leave you some love and get you your points! Don’t forget you have until the end of the month to complete the challenge and no double dipping – you must submit a new layout for each challenge to receive points. If you have questions about the new point system, check out this thread in the forum.