Portraits Learning Path

What You’ll Learn

The Portraits Learning Path is six tutorials on taking a portrait from raw file to finished image. Where the Retouching Learning Path goes deep on skin and detail, this path is about the whole picture: light, background, color and mood, on the kinds of portraits photographers actually shoot. It starts with natural light, moves into the studio, and ends with creative portrait composites.

• 1. Edit natural light portraits Seven portraits start to finish: backlight, haze, underexposure and batch-editing raw files in Camera Raw and Photoshop.
• 2. Edit studio portraits Clean and extend backgrounds, cut out hair with no fringing, replace backgrounds and finish a studio shot.
• 3. Retouch a portrait in under an hour A streamlined workflow with liquify, dodge and burn and sharpening for client deadlines.
• 4. Edit portraits at an advanced level AI people masks, background blur, distraction removal, color and exposure, and advanced sharpening on eight raw portraits.
• 5. Edit a fashion shoot From Lightroom Classic into Photoshop: background changes, added elements, sky swaps, frequency separation and color.
• 6. Create surreal portraits Portrait composites built from textures and stock images with blending modes, color knockouts and light.

Who This Path Is For

Portrait, headshot, family and fashion photographers who want a repeatable way to finish their images, and editors who handle full sessions rather than single hero shots.

You should be comfortable with layers and masks. If not, the Photoshop Learning Path covers them first.

What You Need

• Photoshop A current version, including Camera Raw, for the AI masking steps.
• Lightroom Classic Used in the fashion tutorial; optional elsewhere.
• Sample files Included raw portraits for every tutorial.
• Layers and masks Assumed knowledge. Everything else is taught.

A calibrated monitor matters for portraits: skin tone is where color errors show first.

How Long It Takes

Six tutorials and 36 lessons, about 13 hours of video. The advanced portrait editing course is the longest. At a few hours a week, plan on three to four weeks.

Edit one of your own sessions alongside each tutorial; the techniques transfer directly.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a PHLEARN PRO membership?

Yes. This is a PRO Learning Path, so all six tutorials and their sample files are included with a membership.

How is this different from the Retouching path?

Retouching goes deep on skin, hair and detail. Portraits covers the whole edit: light, background, color, mood and creative composites.

Natural light or studio?

Both. The first tutorial is natural light and the second is studio, and the rest apply to either.

Do I have to follow the order?

It is built to be followed in order, from simpler edits to the advanced and creative ones.

Does it cover shooting?

Lighting comes up where it affects the edit, but this path is about editing. For shooting, see the Photography & Photo Editing Learning Path.

Where to Go Next

• Magical Compositing Learning Path Take the composite portrait work much further.
• AI Photo Editing Learning Path Use AI tools to speed up selections and skin cleanup.
• 30 Days of Lightroom Build a faster front end to your portrait workflow.
• 30 Days of Photoshop Shore up the underlying Photoshop fundamentals.
• Beauty & Fashion Retouching Learning Path High-end beauty and fashion retouching, start to finish.

More on This Topic

• Quick Photo Retouching for Beginners Eight fast fixes: Liquify, skin smoothing, color correction and sharpening.