Image Gradient Map

If you've used Photoshop's Gradient Map adjustment, this is the same idea: instead of adjusting an image's existing colors, it throws them out and remaps every pixel's brightness through a gradient - dark pixels get one end of the gradient's color, bright pixels get the other, everything in between gets whatever sits at that position along the gradient. It's how a lot of cinematic teal-and-orange grading and stylized duotone looks actually get made, and WAS's version does it as one node: "Apply a gradient map to a image."

How it's different from Image Generate Gradient

Easy to mix these two up because they share half a name, but they do opposite jobs. Image Generate Gradient creates a gradient image from scratch out of color stops you define - a fresh image, not a modification of anything. Image Gradient Map takes an existing image and remaps its tones through a gradient, which can be one you built with Generate Gradient or one loaded from elsewhere. Generate Gradient makes the ingredient; Gradient Map is what you cook with it.

Why you'd reach for it

Tonal remapping is a stronger, more deliberate move than a simple color-balance nudge - it collapses the image's actual color information down to whatever the gradient defines, using only brightness to decide the mapping. That's exactly what gives duotone and stylized cinematic looks their punch: the whole image reads as one coherent palette because it genuinely is one palette, just applied by luminance rather than by hand.

The inputs and outputs that matter

An image in, a gradient to map through (its colors and stop positions), and a remapped image out. The gradient is the whole creative decision here - two contrasting colors gives you a classic duotone, a warm-to-cool multi-stop gradient gives you a cinematic grade, a black-to-white gradient just gives you back the original tonal structure in plain grayscale.

How to install it

Bundled with the full WAS Node Suite:

• ComfyUI Manager - search "WAS Node Suite", install, restart.
• Manual - cd ComfyUI/custom_nodes && git clone https://github.com/WASasquatch/was-node-suite-comfyui, install requirements.txt (portable: python_embeded\python.exe -s -m pip install -r requirements.txt), restart.

No model download - pure tonal remapping.

Common issues & troubleshooting

The result looks nothing like the original. That's the node working as intended, not malfunctioning - a gradient map throws away the source's actual hues entirely and replaces them with the gradient's. If you wanted a subtle color grade rather than a full recolor, this is the wrong tool; reach for Image Filter Adjustments or a color-balance node instead and keep this one for when you actually want the stylized, all-in look.

Banding or harsh transitions in the mapped result. If your gradient only has two or three stops spaced far apart, the remap can look stepped rather than smooth, especially on an image with a lot of midtone detail. More stops, spaced more evenly, smooths it out.

Standard pack caveat: WAS Node Suite has been unmaintained since December 2023, and the recurring issue is the whole suite failing to import after a ComfyUI update from a stale pinned dependency. Reinstall requirements.txt against the right Python environment if that hits you.