In this Photoshop tutorial, you’ll learn how to apply effects inside of a gradient. It’s a cool tip that creates a unique and stylized look to your work. It has valuable applications in all aspects of graphic design and web design.

Examples of Photoshop effects applied in a gradient

These two photos change to black and white with a progressive gradient.

These faces change to a vibrant color boost as the gradient progresses upward.

These landscape photos have four different effects applied to them.

Step-by-Step Tutorial

Begin with a photo of your choice.

Create a new alpha channel and draw a black and white gradient of your choice.

Make a selection of the gradient. Command-click on the layer icon.

Click on the RGB channel at the top. This will also deselect the new channel you just made.

Return to the Layers panel

Now you’re ready to apply a wide variety of effects and filters to your photo. The cool thing is that the effect or filter will apply only where the gradient covers your photo.

The first effect I chose to demonstrate was the color halftone.

Here are the results. It progressively applies the color halftone from the lower-left upward toward the top right. It gradually dissipates as it nears the end of the gradient.

In the next example, I applied a Gaussian blur effect.

And here’s a lesser-used effect, the oil paint style.

And here’s a cool use of this technique, I’ve applied an adjustment layer with the Black & White effect. It follows the gradient and changes the color photo to black and white.