Gradient Map
Recolour by luminance — dark pixels take one end of a ramp, bright pixels the other.
Gradient Map ignores the layer's existing colour entirely. It measures how bright each pixel is and looks that brightness up in a colour ramp you define.
The result is duotone, tritone, or any number of tones, with the layer's original tonal structure completely intact.
When to reach for it#
- Duotone treatments on photographs.
- Forcing disparate imagery into one palette.
- Stylised recolouring where the original hues are irrelevant.
How it works#
Position 0 in the ramp maps to black in the source, position 1 to white. Everything between is interpolated. That is why a gradient map on a flat-coloured shape does almost nothing — a flat fill is a single luminance value, so it samples one point on the ramp.
Parameters#
Colours from shadow to highlight. Two stops is the classic duotone. Adding a mid stop lets you push the midtones somewhere unrelated to both ends, which is where the interesting looks live.
Blend back toward the original colours. Around 60% keeps a hint of the source hue, which often looks better than a full replacement.
Things that catch people out#
One luminance value means one ramp sample. Gradient Map needs tonal variation to work with.
See also#
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