Vignette
A vignette in vignette cinematography darkens, desaturates, or lowers contrast toward the frame edges because of optical falloff, mechanical vignetting in the barrel, a filter, or a later grade. Optical vignette follows the lens, while a post oval is a drawing.
Narrative function
The corners lose stop. Attention pools in the center without a spotlight on the actor.
Vintage wide glass and some anamorphics do this unasked. Cameo lighting can look similar, but that is a lighting plot, not falloff in the optic.
Use it to hold the eye in, to mimic old glass, or to admit that the field is darker off axis. Keep it gentle enough that the sides still exist.
It is the wrong tool as a heavy post oval crushed onto every wide. If the edges go to black like a spotlight and the falloff is a perfect geometric shape unrelated to the lens, you have a filter, not an optic.
How it works
Wide-open vintage glass, a wide angle on a small coverage circle, or an ND or grad at the edges. Cosine-fourth falloff is natural.
Mechanical vignetting is the barrel cutting the bundle. In a grade, darken corners with a soft, lens-shaped roll, not a hard oval.
Prompt: natural optical vignette, edges falling off, vintage falloff, not a post oval.
When to use it
A rooftop figure at blue hour, corners a stop down, center holding the coat and the city. Do not crush the sides of a group shot until the people at the edge disappear.
Compared with similar shots
Cameo Lighting lights a figure against a dark field. The darkness is in the set, not in the glass.
Vintage Cine Glass often includes natural vignette plus aberrations. Central Framing is a compositional choice that vignette can support.
Halation glows highlights. Vignette darkens edges.
In film
Barry Lyndon shows fast vintage glass with natural corner falloff in candlelit rooms. The Witch uses older optics whose edges go quietly, holding the eye in the clearing or the kitchen.
Prompt it
Ask for lens falloff, not a baked oval. Example: Natural optical vignette around [Subject], corners a stop down, attention pooled in the center, vintage falloff not a post oval.
What usually goes wrong
Wrong cousin: a circular crop, cameo spotlight, or a heavy social-media oval. Tell: perfect ellipse of black, subjects at the edge crushed, no relation to the lens.
Fix: soft, stop-based roll, keep edge information, match the glass.
Questions
What is a vignette in film?
Darkening or contrast loss at the frame edges from optics, the barrel, a filter, or a grade. Optical vignette is falloff. A post oval is an added shape.
Vignette vs cameo lighting
Cameo lighting is a dark set with a figure lit in the middle. A vignette is the frame itself losing light toward the corners, even if the set is even.
When should I use a vignette?
To hold the eye in or to match vintage glass. Do not crush the sides as a default filter, especially on groups and wides that need the edges.
How do I prompt a vignette for AI image or video?
Request natural optical falloff, a stop or so in the corners, and no hard post oval. Name vintage glass if that is the cause.
Melies can generate this Vignette
Melies is the AI filmmaking workspace. This Vignette opens with the optical prompt loaded, so the effect has a physical cause in the frame.