How to Use Vignettes on Style Images to Your Advantage

A continuous problem I’ve had on the DDG is “Style Bleed”: when the AI awkwardly transfers style into inappropriate areas of the source image. This can make certain dream outputs look clunky and unprofessional, although on others it can look very nice. It usually happens when there is a large empty (textureless/patternless) space in the source image, but no large empty space in the style image to match. So if you have a source image that has significant section of dark or light area (or both) that you do not want to have any style transferred onto, you can use a simple vignette on your style image. Just match color and lightness/darkness of the vignette with that of the source image’s background (or any area of the source image where you don’t want style transferred). For example, if you have a portrait with a dark background that you don’t want style to bleed into, you can add a black vignette to whatever style image you’re using. This will negate style transfer into the background, making the face pop out more. Increasing the density of the vignette will make for a more clear cutoff between foreground and background. Using a double, triple, or even quadruple-vignette (all of different shades, colors, and sizes) can help with skies, clouds, and fog in landscapes, elements that the DDG otherwise struggles with. Vignettes allow for smooth transition between those elements and many more. I use Adobe Photoshop programs to add vignettes to my style images: Photoshop Express for simple black or white vignettes, Photoshop Fix for more advanced colored vignettes and multiple vignettes. But almost any photo editing app will have some vignette options, although you may not be able to choose color and density with all of them. To use multiple vignettes on a style image, add one vignette, save the image, then open that saved image and add another vignette with a larger circumference to it. When using multiple vignettes, I usually turn style weight down to 40%.

Here are some in depth tutorials on how to add vignettes with different programs:

Photoshop

http://www.designpanoply.com/blog/six-ways-to-create-a-vignette-in-photoshop

GIMP

https://m.wikihow.com/Add-a-Vignette-to-a-Photograph-with-GIMP

The photos will start with some step-by-step screenshots of how to add a vignette in Photoshop Fix (my app of choice for them). Then I will show some examples of how vignettes have helped me overcome tricky dream obstacles. Finally I will provide several style images that I’ve added vignettes to for you to use in your own dreaming!

Here are some examples of how I’ve used vignettes to overcome tricky dream obstacles:

Here are some vignetted style images for you to use in your own dreaming: