Photoshop Gradient for Tinting or Toning

Pradip Chowdhury

A toned photo has its own attractions. Some use curves to give the effect. It can be done with it. But it is easier to do with Gradients since a large number is built into Photoshop. You can even create your Gradients. Photoshop CS6 and Photoshop CC have the added advantage of ‘Photographic Toning. Advanced versions of Photoshop do have their advantage in saving time. Here I am not concerned with the edition of Photoshop, but how you can give the effect even in Photoshop7. It is always better to know how to give a certain effect irrespective of the inbuilt advantages of advanced versions. This can be done without too much fuss either and you can use any Gradient you may fancy. Some of the default Gradients give a good enough effect.

The effect to be achieved. The original image is below.

I will be using this image of the Prinsep Memorial in Kolkata, India. It is my photograph. You can download it from here

Step 1 : Click the New Layer icon. A new Layer1 forms above the Background Layer.

Step 2 : Click the Gradient Tool.

Step 3 : Click in the top panel to reveal the default Gradients.

Step 4 : You can click the gear icon to reveal all the other Gradients available. Some of these may be found in advanced versions such as Photoshop CC which I am using. But this is not about using the other Gradients, but only the default ones.

Step 5 : But before using the Gradients click on the Polygon Lasso Tool. We need to make a selection.

Step 6 : I have clicked and dragged the Polygon Lasso around the Memorial before returning to the first point.

Step 7 : We now have a selection.

Step 8 : Go to Selection>Modify>Feather

Step 9: Set a Feather Radius of 500 pixels. I am using 500 pixels because this is a high resolution image. This will give a very diffused feathering. For low resolution images use a lesser Feather Radius. That is the rule of the thumb. Click OK.