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Photography
Use Adobe Photoshop to create a duotone effect.
Whether it’s your favorite band’s avatar or your best friend’s new profile pic, the duotone effect is everywhere. Thankfully, it doesn’t take a full studio to create—all you need is your creativity. Learn how graphic artist Erica Larson uses Adobe Photoshop to add color gradients to her images, creating a duotone look.
Take a peek at the Photoshop technique behind this duotone effect in our one-minute video; the steps are written out below.
Before you start.
The duotone effect works best on high-contrast images.
Step 1: Prep your image
Larson started by adding a Gradient Map Adjustment Layer (different from a regular Gradient). This allows her to map colors onto the grayscale values, while preserving the original image.
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Step 2: Add a splash of color
Click on different Presets in the Properties panel to see how each one affects your image. Larson selected the Violet, Orange gradient as her starting point.
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Step 3: Choose your shade
Click on the gradient to open the Gradient Editor. This preset has two color stops by default. Larson double-clicked on each of the color stops, and then chose a new color using the Color Picker.
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Step 4: Enhance the spectrum
You can shift the color stops and the Color Midpoint (the center diamond) to add a bit more range to your image’s color spectrum. Larson went further, adding two more color stops by simply clicking just below the gradient, and again selecting from the Color Picker.

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Create your dynamic duotone.
See how this dramatic, colorful effect can give any high-contrast, black-and-white image a bold new look.
Note: Project files included with this tutorial are for practice purposes only.