› › COLUMN> PHOTOSHOP USER>^ OCTOBER 2020[ 98 ]
Step Three: You can now turn off or throw away the
Threshold layer. Be sure the color sample markers are
still visible.Step Four: Add a Gradient Map adjustment layer (Layer>
New Adjustment Layer>Gradient Map) above your photo.
Click on its layer mask thumbnail in the Layers panel, and
press Command-I (PC: Ctrl-I) to invert the mask to black
so it hides the effect. We want to sample colors near our
markers without being affected by anything already on
the gradient map. Set the blending mode of the Gradient
Map adjustment layer to Color.important, just that you have two stops to deal with. Start
by dragging the Smoothness setting to 0% (it’s just above
the gradient bar in the Editor).Step Five: To make things easier, I like to start with a default
gradient that has only two stops. The colors of the stops
don’t matter right now. Click the Gradient Map thumbnail
on the layer stack to load it into the Properties panel.Step Six: Next, c lick on the gradient bar in the Proper-
ties panel to open the Gradient Editor. If you don’t already
have a default two-stop gradient loaded, choose the
basic Foreground to Background preset. The colors aren’tStep Seven: Click on the leftmost color stop, then c lick
the color swatch at the bottom to open the Color Picker.
Now c lick on the shadows color sampler marker you
placed earlier. Note in the Color Picker that the HSB values
change to reflect the sample; remember the B value from
this set (18% in this example).
Click OK to close the Color Picker, and then drag the
left color stop so its Location value matches (or is close to)
the B value you just read. This is what helps ensure the
color is mapped to the correct luminosity regions. This can
vary slightly, and it’s likely that you’ll want to play with
this a little anyway.
Repeat for the highlights, using the second color sampler
as your guide. (In this example, the B value is 86%.) You
should now have a gradient that looks something like this.
Don’t click OK yet!