Gradient Map
A color technique that replaces an image's brightness values with colors from a custom gradient. Adjustment layers in Photoshop made it a common way to produce stylized and fantasy palettes.
Spot it
- 01Multi-color tonal ramps
- 02Posterized shifting hues
- 03Surreal recolored skin
Why it happens
Each pixel's luminance indexes into a color gradient, so darkest areas take the first color and brightest areas the last, with intermediate stops filling the midtones.
Recreate it in Pixio
Image edit prompt“Apply a gradient map to this image: shadows become deep navy, lower midtones turn magenta, upper midtones glow orange and highlights go pale yellow, as if each brightness value were replaced by a color from a smooth four-stop gradient. Keep it vivid and surreal. Keep the original subject and composition.”
Open PixioUpload your image and pick an image-edit model.