Using "Gradient Map" tool for color photos?

I use the gradient map tool as a nice starting point for black and white conversion in CS6, but recently I've discovered using it and then setting the blend mode to "luminosity" and it really seems to adjust the contrast perfectly on a color image. I've only tried it on a couple of images, but the levels seem to be perfect after I use the tool. I know this is popular with B&W, but does anyone else use it for their color images?

anyone?

I wouldn't be upset that you didn't get any responses. I think that if you did a poll you would find that Gradient Map is not a highly utilized function by most people.

I do use it on occasion but there are so many ways to accomplish the same results that it is whatever an end user feels comfortable with. I do most of my adjustments as adjustment layers and this does work well with the Gradient Map though I find I have to adjust the opacity as this function appears over saturated to my liking.

I use it to help control colors in images. I use it on color blend mode with a lowish opacity and I'll pick the highlight, mid and shadow colors. It helps to start with an app like Kuler to pick an analogous color palette, then you can add those colors to help create an overall look. Or I'll just use it to add some color to shadows or highlights. I've seen people use it to create tinted images as well, essentially like a B&W but using a color graduation. I don't think it's too uncommon in fashion retouching either.

An example,probably not what you had in mind though:

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Redirected to error image by FLICKR

You can use it for all sorts.

I wrote a bit about it here.

Damo77 wrote in post #15799401
You can use it for all sorts.

I wrote a bit about it here.

Very cool......it just seems like a really quick way to get your overall contrast near perfect for me for the images I've played with. Tons of uses for this tool apparently, but it looks like not a lot of people play with it much

Canon_Shoe wrote in post #15800363
Very cool......it just seems like a really quick way to get your overall contrast near perfect for me for the images I've played with. Tons of uses for this tool apparently, but it looks like not a lot of people play with it much

I think it's more that graphic designers and retouchers use it, and there aren't too many of those on this forum. I've seen it discussed at NAPP and RetouchPro however.

Damo77 wrote in post #15799401
You can use it for all sorts.

I wrote a bit about it here.

Hey thanks for this! I've never really thought about using gradient maps like that

Interesting Thanks Bookmarked

Scatterbrained wrote in post #15801611
I think it's more that graphic designers and retouchers use it, and there aren't too many of those on this forum. I've seen it discussed at NAPP and RetouchPro however.

Agree completely with that statement. For my graphic design and retouching, gradients get used rather frequently.

We use it quite frequently in the cinematics thread.

You can also use it to combine black and white images representing the R, G and B color channels of a scene into a single color image - for example, like this:

http://www.loc.gov/exh​ibits/empire/making.ht​ml

THere are several ways to combine the individual B&W images, but using Gradient Map with smoothness set to 0 (for a nice linear gradient, versus and "S" curve gradient with smoothness set to 100) will give a lot of control to the final composite. You can also use photo filters, but will not have as much control over the final composite, in terms of local modulation of color and tone.

kirk