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.

Woman standing against a solid background with various yellow and orange tones blended across the composition

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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. Use this sample image if you’d like, or practice with your own.

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.

Apply gradient map adjustment layer to model image in Adobe Photoshop

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.

Preview the effect of different gradient map presets

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.

Double-click color stops and use Color Picker to set colors in gradient

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.