Color grading is one of the best places to have fun stylizing a photo and to add a recognizable personal touch to your images. This fantastic video will show you a quick, powerful, and versatile method for color grading your photos by using gradient maps in Photoshop.
Coming to you from Aaron Nace with Phlearn, this great video tutorial will show you how to color grade an image using gradient maps in Photoshop. For anything you want to do in Photoshop, there are probably five ways to accomplish it, and this is particularly true with color grading, and a lot of it simply comes down to your preference for how to do it and which method you find most efficient for your workflow and personal style. One thing I particularly like about the gradient map method is that you can choose the exact transition points relative to luminance values yourself. With tools like the Color Balance adjustment layer, you are locked into Photoshop's sectioning of shadows, midtones, and highlights, but depending on your specific image, you might want to be more precise to dial in the exact look you would like. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Nace.
