38 Gradient Maps for Color Grading

[smadell 311]

Today, let’s have fun with Gradient Maps…

Gradient Maps are a great way to color grade photos, since they map dark, light, and midtone values according to a pre-defined gradient. This can easily define a “look” for photos that might otherwise be hard to accomplish.

Although I am not a user of Photoshop, our “arch rival” has a wonderful group of gradient maps called “Photographic Toning” that are specifically designed to color grade photos. Although you have to drill down through a few panels and dialog boxes to find them (and you sort of have to know they’re there in the first place) they are a truly nice addition. Also, they are easily obtained by anyone.

But, as they say, there’s the rub. Affinity Photo cannot import Photoshop gradient maps. Affinity Photo can store pre-defined gradients in the Swatches studio, but for some unknown reason the stored gradients are not available from the Gradient Map studio panel. Gradient Maps can be stored as presets, and can be chosen from the Adjustments panel, but I don’t believe they can be easily exported from one computer and brought into a different one.

So… after a long couple of days of transcription, I have created a set of Macros that apply each of the 38 Photographic Toning gradient maps. Since macros are easy to store, and to share, I am making them available for anyone who wants them.

There are actually 2 sets of Macros included - each as an easy-to-import Category from the Library panel. The first group of Macros is called “Photographic Toning Gradients” and these are named according to the gradient map they apply. Each macro creates a Gradient Map layer, applies the appropriate color values, and names the layer according to the gradient map it applied. The second set of macros is called “Photographic Toning Gradients - reduced.” This category also applies the gradient maps in a similar fashion, but then reduces the opacity of the layer to 30%. This reduces the effect of the Gradient Map, and produces a much subtler effect.

Here is an image that shows the full-strength versions of all 38 gradient maps.

And here is a photo to which I’ve applied a full-strength gradient map, and also a reduced-strength gradient map.

These macro categories are included in the ZIP file attached to this post, along with a Letter sized JPG that includes samples of the gradient maps. Also included in the ZIP file is another macro category that includes one more macro. It’s called “Obama Hope Poster” and, as you might have guessed, it turns any photo into an Obama Hope-style poster. Just because…

Please enjoy them!

Photographic Toning Gradient Maps.zip

[RNKLN 89]

Thanks for sharing your macros, smadell. I love gradient maps and i'm certainly going to play with your macros.

[DuctTape 32]

@smadell Thank you !!

[Roger C 88]

Thank you, @smadell

Clever stuff, and well done!

And thanks too for the bonus extra of the Obama Hope poster. You've absolutely nailed it - It is superb: The most fun ever!

(Now, whose twitter feed could we apply it to...?)

[smadell 311]

Thanks, folks. I hope you enjoy them.

[dmstraker 385]

Spectacular!! Many thanks, @smadell

[bumz 3]

Thank You

[Madame 281]

Thank you! I missed that! 

[Alfred 4,410]

1 hour ago, Madame said:

Thank you! I missed that! 

 

Ditto! And ditto!

 

[LyricsGirl 61]

Thank you so much!  although Design is my  main program I do have a growing need top interact with Photo as well.  These are amazing!!!!

[LyricsGirl 61]

Thank you! I am going to play around with these.I know nothing about photos but I love tweeking them!

[smadell 311]

I’m really glad you’re enjoying them. Have fun!

[ErikkStarkk 0]

Greatness!

[Rob C 28 8]

Fantastic - your time and effort is greatly appreciated!

Rob

[WeiPhotoArts 18]

Just learning to use Gradient Maps for Toning. So I found these Toning Maps today and downloaded them. After I unzipped them, I went to Affinity Photo 1.6.7 and tried to download them from the MACRO tab, just like I had in other macros. However, both of the macros in the zip file were blurred out, so I couldn't download them. Any suggestions? I have an older (mid-2009) Mac Book Pro running macOS 10.11.6 (El Cap). What may I be doing wrong? Everyone else seems to have no problem.

Wei

Here's what I unzipped:

Photographic Toning Gradients - reduced.afmacros

Photographic Toning Gradients.afmacros

[PaulEC 109]

You need to open them in the Library tab, not the Macro tab.

[WeiPhotoArts 18]

My bad. Thanks PaulEC. Re-did my workflow and opened them in Library. Worked like a charm.

 

Wei

[Suzy Hearn 0]

Thank you so much - late to discover them but just got into really learning and using Affinity Photo and want to do a lot more black and white photography.

Suzy

[Jock Thomson 0]

On 11/10/2017 at 7:56 AM, smadell said:

Today, let’s have fun with Gradient Maps…

Gradient Maps are a great way to color grade photos, since they map dark, light, and midtone values according to a pre-defined gradient. This can easily define a “look” for photos that might otherwise be hard to accomplish.

Although I am not a user of Photoshop, our “arch rival” has a wonderful group of gradient maps called “Photographic Toning” that are specifically designed to color grade photos. Although you have to drill down through a few panels and dialog boxes to find them (and you sort of have to know they’re there in the first place) they are a truly nice addition. Also, they are easily obtained by anyone.

But, as they say, there’s the rub. Affinity Photo cannot import Photoshop gradient maps. Affinity Photo can store pre-defined gradients in the Swatches studio, but for some unknown reason the stored gradients are not available from the Gradient Map studio panel. Gradient Maps can be stored as presets, and can be chosen from the Adjustments panel, but I don’t believe they can be easily exported from one computer and brought into a different one.

So… after a long couple of days of transcription, I have created a set of Macros that apply each of the 38 Photographic Toning gradient maps. Since macros are easy to store, and to share, I am making them available for anyone who wants them.

There are actually 2 sets of Macros included - each as an easy-to-import Category from the Library panel. The first group of Macros is called “Photographic Toning Gradients” and these are named according to the gradient map they apply. Each macro creates a Gradient Map layer, applies the appropriate color values, and names the layer according to the gradient map it applied. The second set of macros is called “Photographic Toning Gradients - reduced.” This category also applies the gradient maps in a similar fashion, but then reduces the opacity of the layer to 30%. This reduces the effect of the Gradient Map, and produces a much subtler effect.

Here is an image that shows the full-strength versions of all 38 gradient maps.

And here is a photo to which I’ve applied a full-strength gradient map, and also a reduced-strength gradient map.

These macro categories are included in the ZIP file attached to this post, along with a Letter sized JPG that includes samples of the gradient maps. Also included in the ZIP file is another macro category that includes one more macro. It’s called “Obama Hope Poster” and, as you might have guessed, it turns any photo into an Obama Hope-style poster. Just because…

Please enjoy them!

Photographic Toning Gradient Maps.zip

Thanks, they will be useful.

 

[Richard S. 90]

Thank you for putting the time and effort in to convert these gradient maps. Much appreciated.

[CliveYoung 0]

Thank you for your great work and the download.

[baz62 0]

how do you make a sky gradient from dark to light using one colour, please?

 

Edited February 25 by baz62
missed out one colour

[ImageryByWarren 2]

Cheers Smadell. Hat tip for the work done on these.