Get to grips with Gradient Maps

Discover new ways of colour toning your images in Photoshop, with Wendy Evans

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What's the difference between Gradients and Gradient Maps, you ask? A Gradient is simply a layer with a progression from one colour to another. If you use a blend mode with it, then it can be incorporated into your image, but there's no subtlety here; it’s exactly as the overlaid gradient progresses through the scene. On the other hand, while a Gradient Map is also a progression from one colour to another, it is mapped by tonal values from dark to light. With a Gradient Map, you can add specific colours to the shadows, midtones and highlights, wherever they appear in the image.