Color grading photographs is an essential part of retouching, as beautiful skin and hair can be undermined by a poor use of color. There is no shortage of methods for manipulating color, which can range from complicated to simplistic.
Split Toning allows you to apply a specific hue to the shadows and highlights of your photo independently, just like you see in the popular Instagram filters. Lightroom gives you a lot of control, as you can select the exact color and level of saturation.
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Split Toning can be particularly useful if you wish to quickly compare a few color grading options with the use of Virtual Copies. As Virtual Copies have very small file sizes, you can test out a range of color palettes and easily flip through them until you land on the right style for that set of images.
With the ability to then Sync the Split Toning adjustments to a selection of your photographs, you can guarantee that your set will have a consistent style throughout.
In this short video tutorial, Julia Trotti demonstrates how easily you can use Split Toning in Adobe Lightroom to color grade your images. While in this video Julia is using this method on images captured outdoors, it is just as effective for studio photography.
Source: Julia Trotti | Featured Image – Photographer: Kendra Paige | Model: Livy Poulin @ Elite Miami | Styling: Mariela Ortega @ Limited Edition | Beauty: Bri Soffa | Hair: Dania Gazzalla | Retouch: Svetlana Pasechnik | Publication: Salysé Magazine
