Alibony Lessons for Photoshop Elements, Lightroom, and Digital Photography

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Photoshop Elements: Burnt Edges Vignette

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Adobe® Photoshop® Elements 6

May 14, 2008

Create that popular burnt edges effect for your photos with a duplicate layer, a blend mode, and a selection. This tip comes from Scott Kelby and the recent Adobe Photoshop CS3 Power Tour and has been adapted for Photoshop Elements. Check out Kelby Training for excellent seminars and online training in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements.

Before After
Original photo Photo with burnt edges

To burn the edges of your photo:

  1. Open the photo you want to use.
  2. Press Ctrl+J to create a duplicate copy of the photo in a new layer.

  3. In the duplicate layer, set the blending mode to Multiply.

    Bend mode Multiply

  4. Select a marquee tool and draw a border around the photo. Make sure that all important parts of your photo are selected.

    Add a marquee selection

  5. From the Select menu, select Feather. Add a feather of 20 or more pixels, depending on the resolution of your photo (higher resolution, more feathering.)

    Adda feather to the selection

  6. Press Delete or Backspace to delete the area in the middle of the marquee and allow the image in the background to show through. If the edges appear too dark, you can adjust the effect by lowering the opacity in the duplicate layer.

    Delete the pixels in the selection

  7. BONUS: Use this same technique to create a quick vignette. Instead of duplicating your image in the second layer, add a layer of solid color (white or any complementary color selected from your image). Follow steps 4-6 to complete the vignette.

    Create a vignette
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Updated on August 4, 2011