How to Use Split Toning in Your Images

Split toning is a great and relatively quick way to create a unique look in your images. This excellent video tutorial will show you how split toning works and give you some great tips for using it on your own photos.

Coming to you from Signature Edits, this helpful video covers the topic of split toning. Split toning is a fairly simple concept at its core: the idea is adding different colors to different parts of an image based on luminance values. The benefit of this is that you can add one color at a given saturation to the highlights and another color at a different saturation value to the shadows. For example, I love to add a bit of yellow or orange to the highlights of my portraits and just a tiny bit of blue or green to the shadows. You will notice that Lightroom also has a balance slider; this allows you to tell it where you want the line that demarcates where shadows transition to highlights is, making it easier to tweak the details. The thing to remember with any color toning effect is that it is very easy to go overboard, so be sure to remember that less is often more. Check out the video above for the full rundown.

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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7 Comments

Alex, great subject... what was the name of the color website that you used in the video? I wasn't able to make out the name when you said it..

Thanks in advance.

Thank you! My hearing isn't what it used to be.... :/

No problem. Stay safe!

you as well.

I'll have to try this in PS

you can make a Gradient from a photo and use it in photoshop by useing https://color.adobe.com/create/image-gradient ;)