Gradient Overlay Goodness

Vignettes are very popular (and often very cool), and this technique can go along with an actual vignette, or could be used to draw out or intensify part of your image.

First, get your complete image on one layer (either flatten or Cmd-Shift-Option-E on a new layer). You may want to duplicate that layer, and if you're down to one layer only, definitely duplicate it.

Then on the new layer, double-click the blank space in the layers palette next to the layer name (to bring up the layer styles dialog) and select Gradient Overlay, or in the menu, choose Layer -> Layer Style -> Gradient Overlay.

Make your settings look like this for starters:

Then with the layer styles dialog still open, click and drag your mouse around in your image until the center of the brightened spot is where you want it. You can get a better sense of where it is by switching the blend mode to Normal temporarily, but I find it best to work where I can see the actual effect.

Click OK and that's it. There are a bunch of parameters to adjust in that dialog, so tweak to suit your taste or the particular image you're working with. I made this into an action, which makes it very quick to apply. You can always tweak the effect after running the action just by double-clicking the layer style in the layers palette.