How to Use Split Toning | Lightroom Tutorial

A lot of photographers ask me, “what is split toning anyway?” Well, for the longest time I didn’t know what it was either. But it’s actually super simple! 

It’s just a way to edit the colors of the highlights (the bright parts) and the shadows (the dark parts) of an image.

Most commonly, photographers use the Split Toning to correct skin tones and color casts. As a general rule of thumb, skin tones are commonly around the 30s. So if your skin tones need a little lift, then choose something around 30 for the highlights and shadows and bump the saturation up just a smidge. The saturation controls the amount of the color.

You can also use split toning to adjust color casts on your images. If you have a red color cast, you could combat this by heading over to the greens or blues to see what balances it out. 

Laslty, Photographers can use split toning to get their “signature style.” Some photographers have a warmer hue to their images, while some have a cooler hue. They get this through a combination of white balance, yes, but also split toning! 

To use the split toning tool, you can set the hue of the shadows and use the saturation slider to control how much you want the color to come through, and you can do the same thing with the highlights. Use the balance tool to control which part you want to be stronger, or leave it in the middle to have it equally balanced between the highlights and the shadows

Definitely spend some time playing with it to see what you like for yourself! If you have any questions, let me know and I’d love to make a video for you.

Happy Editing!

More Resources

View more Lightroom Tutorials HERE

View more Educational posts HERE

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