Photoshop Color Manipulation
In the past few months I'm sure you've seen the rise of social media posts (as well stock images) with dark and moody tones. If you're wondering how to make your images look like these ones, then this tutorial is for you! In Photoshop there are a ton of ways to get this effect, but the method that I'll show you here (in addition to being easy) will give you total control over your picture so you can later fine-tune your picture if you want to.​
But first, to follow this tutorial exactly as described, please download the following image from Pexels: Download
Open your image in Photoshop.
Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Channel Mixer. From the Output Channel dropdown menu, select the Blue channel, set the Green to +100% and the Blue to 0%.
Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Selective Color. Under Colors, select the Reds from the dropdown menu and apply the following settings.
Now, select the Neutrals from the Colors dropdown menu and apply the following settings.
Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation. Select the Cyans from the dropdown menu and decrease the saturation to -60.
Press "D" on your keyboard to reset the Foreground and Background colors.
Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map.
In the Layers Panel, set the Blending Mode to Soft Light and decrease the Opacity to 50%.
Click over the Gradient Map layer mask and go to Image > Apply Image. Apply the following settings and click OK.
Go to Layer > New Fill Layer > Gradient.
From the Gradient thumbnail dropdown menu select the Foreground to Transparent gradient, apply the following settings and click OK.
Lastly, select the Gradient Fill layer mask and go to Image > Apply Image. Apply the following settings and click OK.
As you may see, giving an image a Dark & Moody Color Tone is very simple. Now, you can use this same technique over any other image you want like the following examples. And if you plan to use this effect over many different images, a good idea is to record an action right after you opened your first image until you save and close it.
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