Duotone Effect in Photoshop

Two ways to Create Duotone Effect in Photoshop

In this tutorial, you will learn two ways to create Duotone Effect in Photoshop. Both the ways are easy and quick to create. Duotone images are images that use two hue colors, one for highlights and another for shadows. Print media uses Duotone images as it requires only two colors while printing.

Before beginning with the tutorial, select a colorful and good light effect photograph for creating the Duotone Photoshop Effect. Then launch Adobe Photoshop and open the selected image as a new document.

Method 1

In this first method, we will use Gradient Map Tool for creating Duotone Effect in Photoshop. Now follow the below-mentioned step-by-step process:

Step 1

After opening the image, press Ctrl + J to create copy of the original image. It is advisable to work on the copied layer so that you can get back to the original image layer whenever required.

Step 2

Select the copied image layer in the Layers Panel and click on the Image in the Menu Bar. Place the cursor on Adjustment and select Gradient Map.

On selecting the Gradient Map, a Gradient Map dialogue box will appear. By default, the image will get converted into black and white color gradient.

Step 3

In the Gradient Map dialogue box, click on the gradient swatch to open the Gradient Editor. Then in the Gradient Editor, select a color stop and click on Color swatch to open the Color Picker.

Now in the Color Picker dialogue box, select the color which you want to fill in the white color space (the highlighted area of the image). Then click OK.

Step 4

Now select black color stop to edit its color and open the color picker. Select a new color for gradient and click OK.

With the help of the Gradient Map Adjustment Tool, we have applied a duotone gradient on the image.

Click OK to apply all the changes.

You can also create a Level Adjustment Layer to adjust the midtones, highlights and shadows of the image.

This is how you can create a Duotone Effect in Photoshop using Gradient Map Tool. Now let’s move on to second method of creating a Duotone Photoshop Image.

Method 2

In this method, we will use Duotone Mode of Photoshop to create a Duotone Image. Let’s open a new image in the Photoshop as a new document and start creating Duotone Effect.

Step 1

Create a copy of the original image by pressing Ctrl + J.

Step 2

In this step, we will convert the colorful image into 8 Bits Grayscale image.

Select the copied image layer. Then click on Image in the Menu Bar and place the cursor on Mode. Select the Grayscale mode and 8 Bits/Channel.

After selecting the Grayscale mode, a pop-up will appear asking you to Flatten the image before mode change. Select Flatten in that pop-up.

On selecting Flatten, a new message will appear asking you to Discard Color Information. Select Discard and the image will get converted into Grayscale Mode.

Step 3

Again select Image in the Menu Bar. Then place the cursor on Mode and select Duotone.

A Duotone Options dialogue box will appear. In that dialogue box, select Type as Duotone.

Step 4

In the Duotone Options dialogue box, you can change the Ink colors by clicking on the color swatches. You can pick any two color of your choice to create a Duotone Effect on the image. Also, give a name to the selected ink colors.

After selecting the Duotone Colors, click on the Duotone Curve to adjust the colors.

Click OK to apply the changes.

So, this is how you can create Duotone Effect using the Duotone Mode in Photoshop.

In this article, you have learned two ways of creating Duotone Effect in Photoshop. Pratice this Duotone Effect Photoshop Tutorial and share your views in the comment section. Also, share this tutorial with others.