Split Toning: One Colour in the Shadows, Another in the Highlights
Pick a hue for each end and move the crossover between them. The two weights sum to exactly one at every brightness, so a shadow tint can never reach a pure highlight however hard you push it.
Drop images here
or click to browse · or paste with Ctrl+V
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Moves the brightness at which the two tints hand over to each other. This is the control that decides how much of the picture each one gets.
Keeps every pixel at the brightness it had, so you are tinting rather than also changing exposure.
Presets
Your photos are never uploaded. The tonal weighting and the tinting both run inside this browser tab.
People also use
Everything this tool does
Weights that sum to exactly one
The highlight weight is a smooth ramp and the shadow weight is one minus it, so every brightness is covered once. Checked at all 256 levels, the two add to 1.000 with no deviation.
Shadow tint cannot reach white
The shadow weight is zero at pure white, so a white pixel comes back unchanged with the shadow strength at maximum. The same holds at pure black for the highlight tint.
A movable crossover
The balance slider moves the brightness at which the two tints hand over, which decides how much of the frame each one covers. It changes the result more than either strength does.
Zero-mean colour directions
Each hue is added as a direction whose red, green and blue amounts cancel, so the shift is a hue change rather than a brightness change before preservation even applies.
Luminosity preservation
On a test image with both tints at full strength, mean luminance moved 0.00 levels with preservation on, against 3.8 with it off.
Drag to compare
Before and after share one frame with a slider, which matters for an effect that works best when it is hard to notice.
Six purpose-built presets
Cool shadows with warm highlights, teal and orange, barely there, moody, airy and a deliberately reversed pairing.
Batch with one ZIP
Apply one grade across a whole set so the frames match, and take everything as a single archive.
Full hue range at both ends
Any hue for shadows and any for highlights, with a gradient strip under each so you can see what you are selecting.
Nothing is uploaded
No server, no queue, nothing to delete afterwards. Close the tab and every trace of the image goes with it.
What each control does
Two hues, two strengths and one balance. The balance is the control most people ignore and the one that changes the result most, because it decides how much of the picture each tint actually covers.
| Setting | What it does | Try | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shadow hue 200-230 | cool blue shadows | strength 30-50 | The classic film look |
| Highlight hue 30-50 | warm golden highlights | strength 25-45 | Pairs with cool shadows |
| Both strengths 15-25 | barely there | balance 0 | Subtle grading |
| Both strengths 60-100 | obvious duotone feel | balance 0 | Graphic, stylised |
| Balance -60 | shadow tint covers more | any hues | Moody, dark grades |
| Balance +60 | highlight tint covers more | any hues | Bright, airy grades |
| Preserve luminosity | tint without changing exposure | always on | Any serious grading |
1.000
weights sum, exactly
0
files uploaded
360
degrees of hue, each end
Movable
crossover point
ZIP
batch download
Free
no account needed
FlipMyFormat vs other split toning tools
| Capability | FlipMyFormat | Typical free tool |
|---|---|---|
| Files stay in your browser | ||
| Weights that sum to exactly one | ||
| Movable crossover between the two tints | ||
| Shadow tint provably cannot reach pure white | ||
| Per-pixel luminosity preservation | ||
| Batch ZIP download without paying | ||
| No watermark on the output |
How to split tone without it looking like a preset
Split toning is the oldest colour grade there is, and it works because it imitates something real. Daylight is warm and the shadows it casts are lit by blue sky, so in the world your eye is used to, bright things skew warm and dark things skew cool. Reproducing that relationship makes a photograph feel lit rather than coloured, which is why cool shadows with warm highlights is not merely a fashion but the pairing almost every film stock and almost every colour grade is built on. Start there and only depart from it deliberately. The mistake that makes split toning look like a preset is pushing both strengths until the tints are obvious. The effect works best when a viewer cannot name it: at thirty percent the photograph simply looks like it was taken in better light, and at eighty it looks like a filter was applied. If you want something obviously stylised then push it, but know which of the two you are making. The control worth spending your time on is the balance. Both strengths at the same value with the balance in the middle splits the picture evenly, which is rarely what a photograph wants. Pushing the balance toward the shadows hands more of the frame to the shadow tint and produces a moodier, darker grade; pushing it the other way gives you an airier one. It is the same two colours in both cases, and the results look completely different, which is why it is the last control most people discover and the first one worth learning.
- 1
Add your photos
Drag them in, click to browse, or paste with Ctrl+V. Fix white balance and levels first, since split toning is a finishing step.
- 2
Pick the two hues
Cool shadows with warm highlights is the classic pairing. Set both strengths low at first, around 30, and judge the hues before the amounts.
- 3
Move the balance, then export
Balance decides how much of the picture each tint covers, and it changes the result more than either strength. Save individually or as one ZIP.
Why a shadow tint must not reach a highlight
Two weights that add to one
Every split toning tool has to decide how much a given pixel counts as a shadow and how much as a highlight, and the sloppy way is two independent curves that happen to overlap. When they do not sum to one, the two tints both apply in the middle of the range and fight each other, and the shadow tint bleeds into bright areas where it has no business being. Here the highlight weight is a smooth ramp and the shadow weight is exactly one minus it, so the pair covers every brightness once and only once. That gives a guarantee you can check: at pure white the shadow weight is zero, so a pure white pixel comes back unchanged no matter how hard the shadow strength is pushed, and the same holds at pure black for the highlight tint. We verify both, and we verify the sum: across all 256 brightness levels the two weights add to 1.000 with no deviation.
Tinting without changing exposure
Adding colour to a pixel also makes it brighter, so a toning tool without a guard is quietly an exposure tool as well. Two things here prevent that. The colour added for each hue is built as a zero-mean direction, meaning the amounts added across red, green and blue cancel out, so the shift is a hue change rather than a brightness change before anything else happens. On top of that, preserve luminosity rescales each pixel back to the brightness it started with. On a test image with both tints at full strength, the mean luminance moved by 0.00 levels with preservation on, against 3.8 with it off. The remaining limit is the same one every eight bit tool has: where a channel would need to exceed 255 to hold the brightness, it cannot, and that only appears at extreme settings.
What people use it for
Film emulation
Most film stocks are recognisable largely by how they render shadows against highlights, which is exactly what this controls.
Cinematic grading
Teal shadows with orange highlights is the dominant look in modern film, and it is two hues and a balance.
Wedding and portrait finishing
A gentle warm-highlight, cool-shadow grade makes skin look lit rather than corrected.
Black and white toning
Applied to a greyscale image it gives selenium or sepia style toning with far more control than a single tint.
Brand consistency
One grade applied across a campaign ties unrelated photographs together more effectively than a shared crop or filter.
Landscape photography
Cool shadows in the foreground with warm light above reinforces the way the scene was actually lit.
Moody and low key work
Pushing the balance toward the shadows hands most of the frame to the darker tint.
Album and editorial imagery
A distinctive but subtle grade reads as art direction rather than as a filter.
Six tips worth knowing
Cool shadows with warm highlights is not just a fashion. Daylight is warm and shadows are lit by blue sky, so it matches how your eye expects a scene to look.
Spend your time on the balance, not the strengths. The same two hues at a different balance produce completely different pictures.
Keep both strengths around thirty for a grade nobody can name. Past sixty it reads as a filter, which is fine if that is what you wanted.
Leave preserve luminosity on. Without it every colour change is also a brightness change and you end up fighting your own adjustments.
Split tone last, after white balance and levels. It is a finishing step, not a correction.
Try it on a greyscale image. Split toning a black and white photo is where the technique came from, and it is still one of its best uses.
Troubleshooting
My highlights picked up the shadow colour
They should not. The shadow weight is exactly zero at pure white. What you are probably seeing is a bright midtone, which legitimately receives some of both. Move the balance up.
The photo got brighter
Preserve luminosity is switched off. Turn it back on and each pixel keeps the brightness it had while its colour shifts.
It looks like a cheap filter
Both strengths are too high. Bring them to around thirty and adjust the balance instead, which changes the character without shouting.
There is banding in the sky
Subtle colour across a large smooth area is exactly what JPEG bands. Export PNG, or keep JPEG quality above 90.
Frequently asked questions
What is split toning?
Putting one colour into the shadows of a photograph and a different one into the highlights. It comes from darkroom toning and is the basis of most film looks and colour grades.
How is it different from colour balance?
Colour balance gives you nine numeric sliders across three fixed ranges. Split toning gives you a hue for each end and a movable crossover, which is a faster way to build the specific look this technique is used for.
Why cool shadows and warm highlights?
Because that is how daylight works. Sunlight is warm and the shadows it casts are lit by blue sky, so reproducing that relationship makes a photograph feel lit rather than coloured.
What does the balance slider do?
It moves the brightness at which the two tints hand over to each other, which decides how much of the picture each one covers. The same two hues at a different balance look completely different.
Can the shadow tint affect my highlights?
Not at pure white, where the shadow weight is exactly zero. A white pixel comes back unchanged with the shadow strength at maximum. Bright midtones legitimately receive some of both, which is what the balance is for.
Why do the weights need to sum to one?
So that every brightness is covered once and only once. Independent overlapping curves would apply both tints in the middle of the range and let the shadow tint bleed into bright areas.
Does it change the exposure?
Not with preserve luminosity on. Each hue is added as a zero-mean colour direction, and then each pixel is rescaled to its original brightness. Mean luminance moved 0.00 levels on a test image with both tints at full strength.
How strong should the tints be?
Around thirty for a grade nobody can name, which is usually the goal. Past sixty it reads as an obvious filter, which is a legitimate choice as long as it is a choice.
Can I use it on black and white photos?
Yes, and it is one of the best uses. Toning a monochrome print with two colours is where the technique originated, and it gives far more control than a single sepia or selenium tint.
Should I split tone before or after other edits?
After. It is a finishing step. Fix white balance and set your levels first, then grade.
What is teal and orange?
A split tone with cyan-blue shadows and warm orange highlights, pushed harder than a natural grade. It became the dominant look in film because it separates skin tones from typical backgrounds.
Can I put warm in the shadows instead?
Yes, and there is a preset for it. It reads as slightly unsettling precisely because it inverts how daylight behaves, which is useful when that is the mood you want.
Are my photos uploaded to a server?
No. The weighting and the tinting both run in your browser using the canvas API. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Which format should I export?
PNG, or JPEG at quality 90 or above. Subtle colour across a large smooth area such as a sky is exactly the content JPEG bands.
Is transparency preserved?
Yes for PNG and WebP output. The alpha channel is untouched. JPG has no alpha, so transparent areas are filled with the background colour first.
Can I apply one grade to a whole set?
Yes, and that is the main reason to use the batch. Consistency across a series is most of what makes a set look deliberately graded.
Does luminosity preservation always hold exactly?
Almost. It cannot hold where a channel would need to exceed 255 to keep the brightness, which is a limit of eight bit output and only appears at extreme settings.
Does it add a watermark or need an account?
No to both. No sign-up, no email wall, no daily limit and no watermark on the output.