Spent 4 hours on color tweaks that a 2 minute gradient map could have fixed

I was working on this branding project for a local bakery in Austin last Tuesday and I kept going back and forth trying to get the perfect pastel tones across their social media graphics. I must have adjusted hue and saturation sliders a hundred times over four hours because the pink kept looking either too coral or too washed out. Then my buddy who is a print designer walked over and just slapped a gradient map on the whole thing and it matched instantly. I felt like such an idiot for not thinking of that sooner especially since I use gradient maps for photography all the time. Has anyone else had a moment where you overcomplicated something and later realized a basic tool you already knew would have saved you hours?

3 comments

3 Comments

elliot_harris251mo ago

Hold up, is it really that serious though? I mean yeah, you wasted some time but it sounds like you ended up with a good result anyway and you probably learned something about what you were trying to do in the process. Four hours tweaking colors is a lot but thats just part of learning the ropes and next time youll remember the gradient map trick. Its not like you missed a deadline or lost a client over it so I wouldnt beat yourself up too much.

rayc831mo ago

Yeah I used to have that same attitude about it too. But honestly after burning a whole day on something that could've been fixed in ten minutes, it gets old fast.

angela_wilson7823d ago

Wait, have you ever tried troubleshooting something only to realize the problem was something stupid like a loose cable? @rayc83 I feel you on that whole day thing though. Last month I spent like six hours trying to figure out why my photos were coming out blurry and it turned out I just needed to clean the lens on my phone with a microfiber cloth. Took less than a minute once I figured it out and I was kicking myself for not thinking of it sooner. Sometimes the simple fixes are the ones that sneak up on you.