About this lesson
Another great tutorial to help you find the hidden gems in Photoshop. This time, it is the gradient map adjustment layer, and the extra gradients that can help transform your images instantly. On top of that is the simple introduction to the power of actions for speeding up your workflow.
Exercise files
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Quick reference
Topic
Learn how to quickly add a gradient map to your photos for quick colorization.
When to use
Another great tutorial to help you find the hidden gems in Photoshop. This time, it is the gradient map adjustment layer, and the extra gradients that can help transform your images instantly. On top of that is the simple introduction to the power of actions for speeding up your workflow.
Instructions
Load you image
Add a gradient map adjustment layer
- Sample gradient presets
- Additional presets can be loaded in the gear icon
- Load new photographic toning set
- Append to your current list of gradients.
- Change blend mode in adjustment mode suit
Create a quick edit preset with actions
- Open the actions panel
- Create a new action
- Follow the same steps as above
- Stop the action to complete it (and save)
- 00:11 With applications like Instagram taking over our photos,
- 00:14 many people are looking for a very quick way to add filters to their images.
- 00:18 Photoshop CS6 ships with a brand new set of gradients - perfect for photography.
- 00:22 Here's a simple photo that I recently took in London,
- 00:26 somewhat appropriate considering the Olympics are going on as I speak.
- 00:29 In our layers panel, let's go ahead and add a ‘gradient map’ adjustment layer, to
- 00:33 make sure we’re working non-destructively,
- 00:35 and take a look at the Properties panel at the top.
- 00:39 By default, Photoshop only displays a few simple gradients, and honestly,
- 00:42 I wouldn't want any these gradients on my photos. Now, like many areas and Photoshop,
- 00:47 additional presets can be loaded in
- 00:49 to give you more variety in your edits. At the top right corner by
- 00:52 the grading picker, click on the gear icon to reveal the list of additional
- 00:56 presets.
- 00:57 Towards the bottom, you're going to find the new photographic toning set.
- 01:00 Clicking on the preset will give you the option to append or add them to your
- 01:04 current list of gradients.
- 01:05 Now, if we take a look at these new gradients, you will definitely notice that
- 01:09 they're much more suitable for photography
- 01:10 These are fantastic gradients.
- 01:13 Of course, once you find the one that you like, you can keep it 'as is,'
- 01:17 or, because we applied the gradient map as an adjustment layer,
- 01:20 you can also change the blend mode to blend in with the colors of the original
- 01:24 image.
- 01:24 At this point your mind should be exploding with ideas,
- 01:27 so let me throw some more fuel to the fire. As you are experimenting with these
- 01:31 new gradients in blending mode,
- 01:32 you may find yourself using the same combinations for many of your photos.
- 01:36 Let's bring actions into play. Opening up the Actions panel, we can create a new
- 01:41 action,
- 01:42 and then follow the same steps we originally took. Add the gradient map
- 01:45 adjustment layer,
- 01:46 choose the photographic gradient of your choice, change the blend mode to finish
- 01:51 it off.
- 01:52 And then stop the action to complete it. Sure, this isn't a very lengthy process,
- 01:57 but if you plan on applying the effect to a few dozen photos,
- 01:59 using action can save you a lot of time. And that's a look at the new
- 02:04 photographic toning gradients inside Photoshop CS6.
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