Nikon Capture Vignette Control

Nikon Capture Vignette Control

A camera lens projects a circular image of the subject back onto the film plane (or sensor plane, in the case of a digital camera). Since the sensor is rectangular it only actually photographs the middle part of the projected image circle. On some special lenses (circular fisheye) the image circle is small enough to actually fit inside the image area and you end up with a circular picture!

Due to the physical properties of light passing through lenses it is impossible to get the exact same amount of light to the edges of the circle as the center (the light going to the edges has to travel farther, thus falls off more). This light fall off creates a very slight reduction of exposure on the corners of an image. This darkening in the corners is called vignetting.

Each lens has it's own vignetting characteristics and compensating for the light fall off can be done in software. Nikon Capture 3.5 introduces a new feature allowing automatic correction for image vignetting. When an image from a Nikon D-SLR is opened in the Nikon Capture editor a new "Vignette Control" tool becomes available.

When a Nikkor D or G type lens is used on a Nikon Digital SLR camera the lens information and focal length is recorded in the image Shooting Data. When an image is opened the correct Vignette Control "Intensity" setting is determined based on the lens data. The correction amount can be fine-tuned by adjusting the slider up or down. When an image from a non Nikkor D or G Type lens is opened there can be no automatic correction (there is no lens information) and the user must manually adjust the Intensity setting.

The Vignette Control is available with Nikon Capture and can be used with images from a Nikon D-SLR which records shooting information.