Create lighting effects using Gradient Maps in Photoshop

Create lighting effects using Gradient Maps in Photoshop

In this Photoshop tutorial by Unmesh Dinda from Piximperfect you will learn an interesting technique to completely mold and control light in Photoshop using Gradient Maps along with amazing light effects to add drama, depth, and dimension.

In this video, learn how to manipulate multiple levels of light. Whether you want to remove shiny flash hotspots or add more shine, make harsh light soft or soft light harsh, with Gradient Maps, you can control almost everything. Gradient Map allows you to control what happens in different brightness/darkness levels of the photo. It goes further than highlights, shadows, and mid-tones and lets you divide the tones into even more smaller pieces. As many pieces as you desire. In this tutorial, we will learn how to use this to our advantage and controls every aspect and level of light.

Get tutorials & freebies delivered to you.

Subscribe to the Photoshop Roadmap newsletter, a weekly roundup of new tutorials, insights and quality downloads, trusted by 6500+ readers.

You might also like

How to Use the Relight Layer in Photoshop Beta

Photoshop's new Relight Layer brings AI-powered directional lighting into the compositing workflow, filling the gap left by the deprecated Lighting Effects tool. You can place up to three independent light sources, control their color, intensity, diffusion, and distance, and blend them with the image's original...

How to Use the Automatic Blemish Removal Tool in Adobe Camera Raw

Adobe Camera Raw's blemish removal tool scans a portrait and cleans skin imperfections in seconds, without any manual selection. The workflow stays entirely non-destructive when the layer is converted to a smart object first, and a fade slider lets you control how much retouching is actually applied...

How to Use a Grey Layer to Spot and Fix Mask Edges in Photoshop

Edge halos and stray artifacts are easy to miss when masking a subject, especially with AI-generated selections. Placing a neutral grey layer beneath your masked subject forces those problem areas into plain view, making cleanup faster and more precise. Practical Tips These steps cover the core workflow shown in...

How to Use the Light Adjustment Layer in Photoshop Effectively

Photoshop's Light adjustment layer brings Camera Raw-style tonal controls — exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, whites, and blacks — directly into a non-destructive layer workflow. The real value isn't in what the sliders do individually, but in how you sequence them to expand dynamic range and reveal...

Photoshop’s Big 5: The Features That Actually Mattered This Year So Far

Photoshop updates land continuously throughout the year, but not every new addition reshapes how we actually work. While some releases bring minor UI polish or experimental tools, a handful of recent additions stand out as genuine upgrades to daily creative production. Rather than sifting through endless release notes, here is...

You’ve successfully subscribed to Photoshop Roadmap
Welcome back! You’ve successfully signed in.
Great! You’ve successfully signed up.
Success! Your email is updated.
Your link has expired
Success! Check your email for magic link to sign-in.