Colorizing Images With Gradients–Part 2

 

Adding More Colors

At the moment, our gradient is made up of only two colors, but we can add as many colors we like simply by adding more color stops. To add a color stop, just click below the gradient preview area at the spot where you want it to appear. I'll add a third color stop below the middle of the gradient. As soon as you click, the new color stop appears:

To change its color, simply click on the color swatch, then select a new color from the Color Picker. I'll select a medium orange. Notice that I'm purposely selecting new colors that match, as close as possible anyway, the brightness of the original color in the gradient. You can create wild and crazy color effects by selecting colors with very different brightness levels than the originals, but for smoother, more natural looking gradients, it's best to try and match the brightness levels as closely as possible:

I'll click OK to once again exit out of the Color Picker, and we can see in the document window that the midtones in my image now appear orange. The darker areas are still purple, and the lighter areas are still yellow thanks to the three-color gradient I've created to colorize the image with:

Not only can we add new colors to the gradient, we can move existing colors around. To move any of the colors and change the look of the gradient, simply click on the color stop and drag it left or right along the bottom of the gradient preview area. You can also click and drag the small diamond shape that appears between two color stops to change the distance it takes for one color to blend into another. Keep an eye on the image in the document window to judge the results. Finally, to remove a color from the gradient, just click and drag its color stop away from the gradient preview area until it disappears, then release your mouse button:

When you're done creating and editing the gradient, click OK to exit out of the Gradient Editor, then click OK to exit out of the Gradient Map dialog box (Photoshop CS3 and earlier).

Step 4: Change The Blend Mode Or Lower The Opacity

If you find that the initial colorizing effect is too intense (as mine is), there's a couple of easy ways to give it a more subtle appearance. One is by changing the blend mode of the Gradient Map adjustment layer. I'm going to change my blend mode from Normal (the default blend mode) to Soft Light:

You can also try the Overlay blend mode for a higher contrast look. In my case, Soft Light works better and gives me a much more subdued colorizing effect:

Another way to reduce the intensity of the effect is by lowering the opacity of the Gradient Map adjustment layer. I'll set my blend mode back to Normal and this time, I'll lower the Opacity option (directly across from the blend mode option) all the way down to 25%:

 

By lowering the opacity of the adjustment layer, we get a softer look with less contrast than what the Soft Light blend mode gave us:

Done!!!