Enhanced Image - Digital Manipulation

To experiment with enhancing digital images I experimented with vignetting.This was my attempt of adding a vignetting effect to one of my photographs of Osborne House. I then done one of cottages in Godshill and another photograph I had taken on a day out. I don't particularly like this effect as I think it create a quite harsh vignette around the image because it is very dark. I think it would look better if it was softer without such dark edges.

Step 1- Open a photograph
Step 2 - use the elliptical marque tool and draw an oval over the part of the image, generally the center.
Step 3 - Right click, Inverse
Step 4 - Create a new layer
Step 5 - Using the fill tool, fill the selected part with black.
Step 6  - Deselect. Go to filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, adjust it to what you like, click OK.