Grade a photo the way video colorists do: pick a color for the shadows, another for the midtones, a third for the highlights, and set how strongly each range takes its tint. The image is split by luminance into three overlapping masks, so tints fade into each other instead of banding at a hard threshold.
Three tonal ranges
Each pixel’s luminance decides how much of each tint it receives. Deep tones follow the shadow color, bright tones the highlight color, and everything between leans on the midtone color. The masks overlap deliberately: a value at the edge of two ranges takes a proportional blend of both tints, which keeps gradients like skies smooth.
Amounts are independent, and a range with 0% amount is skipped entirely. Grading only the shadows and highlights while leaving midtones untouched is a legitimate grade, and it is the exact behavior of a classic two-way split tone.
Chroma, not exposure
Every tint is applied as a chroma shift: the color’s own gray component is subtracted before it is added to the pixel, so a bright highlight tint does not brighten highlights and a dark shadow tint does not crush shadows. This separation is what keeps grading stackable with tonal tools; run levels or exposure first, then grade, and the two adjustments do not fight.
Balance
Balance moves the crossover points between the ranges. Pushed toward shadows, the shadow mask claims more of the midtones; pushed toward highlights, the highlight tint reaches further down. It is the fastest fix when a grade is right in color but lands on the wrong part of the image, for example when a teal shadow tint creeps into skin.
Teal and orange
The most searched grade is also a reasonable first exercise: teal in the shadows around 20%, warm amber in the highlights around 20%, midtones untouched, balance slightly toward highlights. Skin sits opposite teal on the color wheel, so the pairing separates subjects from backgrounds without any masking.