In photography forums I often read posts that dismiss a lens because “it vignettes.” The assumption seems to be that really good lenses don’t vignette. I’m afraid that searching for lenses that don’t vignette is a hopeless quest.

Vignetting (or “fall-off”) in the corners of the frame is a fact of life with essentially all lenses. As I understand it, this is simply a condition that can’t be completely eliminated in the design of normal camera lenses – though there are ways to reduce it. So the question really is not “does my lens vignette?” It does. More useful questions are: “How much does the lens vignette?” and “How apparent is vignetting at different apertures?” and “How do the vignetting characteristics of this lens affect my photography?”

Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 lens at f/1.4 and f/4

I have four excellent Canon lenses: 17-40mm f/4 L, 24-105mm f/4 IS L, 70-200mm f/4 L, and 50mm f/1.4 prime. I looked at all of them when I did my recent Full Frame Lens Test. I confirmed that all four can produce really excellent results… and that all four produce noticeable vignetting in certain circumstances, especially in test conditions. (Results posted at various lens test sites on the web will confirm this.)

But is this a problem? Generally, no – though it is important to understand the vignetting characteristics of your lenses if you want to take advantage of this characteristic when appropriate and minimize it when you don’t. The body you use also makes a big difference. Fall off from a given lens will be more visible on a full frame sensor than on a crop sensor.

Stopping down greatly reduces the effect with all of my lenses. On some of them (e.g. – the 50mm prime and the 70-200mm zoom) light fall off becomes very minor when stopped down just a bit. It does not diminish quite as quickly on the 24-105, and the 17-40 can show the effect at apertures as small as f/8, depending upon subject.

Given that vignetting is a fact of life, how can we deal with it? There are actually quite a few approachs that can be used individually or together in different situations.

• Vignetting can often be effectively reduced or even eliminated in post processing. When necessary I use adjustments in ACR or Photoshop to reduce the effect.
• Shooting at smaller apertures can minimize or virtually eliminate the effect. Since I often shoot from a tripod I tend to use slower shutter speeds at smaller apertures. Fortunately, full frame DSLR cameras can use smaller apertures than crop sensor cameras; at f/11 or f/16 vignetting effects are rarely visible.
• In many situations vignetting is actually a pleasing effect. My theory is that vignetting often simulates the way we see with our eyes – we are more aware of objects in the center of our field of vision and less aware of those in peripheral areas. Vignetting can de-emphasize the peripheral area and draw attention to the center. (In some images I intentionally add a bit of vignetting for this purpose.)
• Vignetting that is cleary visible when the subject is a perfectly uniform test target is often completely invisible in photographs of detailed subjects. In other words, the lens vignettes but you can’t see it. (This is a good illustration of the principle that what happens in photographs is more important than what happens in tests.)

So, vignetting is a fact of photographic life – for better or worse. Searching for a lens that does not vignette is hopeless. It makes a lot more sense to understand vignetting and learn how to work with the vignetting characteristics of your lenses.

—–