Nov 17, 2009
A Quick Way to Fake a Gradient Filter in Photoshop
Categories: Post Production
Written By: lightstalking
So you have rushed out to shoot a landscape on a sunny day, and while you tried to remember the sunny f/16 rule, you forgot to take your gradient filter with you and you have some washed out skies in your shots. Fear not! All is not lost. Here is a quick and dirty way to fake a gradient filter in Photoshop.
Step 1)
Open your image in Photoshop.
Step 2)
Create a new layer.
Step 3)
Hit “G” to bring up the gradient bar.
Step 4)
In the gradient editor, select “white/black”
Step 5)
Draw the gradient.
Step 6)
In the layer properties window, select “Overlay”
Step 7)
In the Layer properties window, adjust the opacity to suit your tastes.
Well, that’s about it. It’s quick. It’s nasty. And it can save your washed out skies when you’re in a bind.
November 27th, 2009 at 6:15 pm
first of all here in the UK we only get one day of sunny weather (well not that bad but …) I use a slightly longer method loosely select the sky feather the selection at 200 then darken with the Image>Adjustments>Brightness. this works great when you a busy sky with clouds
Thanks for your tip
November 27th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
@John – that’s a great way to do it too – I hadn’t thought of that one, but I can see that it would work. Thanks for sharing.
January 5th, 2010 at 3:18 pm
first of all here in the UK we only get one day of sunny weather (well not that bad but …) I use a slightly longer method loosely select the sky feather the selection at 200 then darken with the Image>Adjustments>Brightness. this works great when you a busy sky with clouds
Thanks for your tip