Coloring Learning Path

What You’ll Learn

Color is the part of an image people react to before they know why. The Coloring Learning Path treats it as a craft with rules rather than a matter of taste: nine tutorials that build four named looks from scratch and teach the tools underneath them in both Photoshop and Lightroom.

• Grade in Lightroom and Camera RAW Advanced color grading in the two applications that share an engine — the Color Grading panel, HSL, curves and profiles, and where each one is the right tool.
• Build a dark and moody look Desaturated shadows, controlled highlights and the color choices that make an image feel heavy without making it muddy.
• Build a bright and airy look Lifted blacks, soft contrast and warm neutrals, the treatment most often asked for in wedding and family work.
• Build a bold and vibrant look Saturation handled selectively so colors sing without skin tones turning orange, taught across Lightroom and Photoshop.
• Build a film and vintage look Emulating film response — the tonal curve, the grain, the color casts — rather than dropping a preset on top of a digital file.
• Master black and white Conversion as a set of deliberate channel decisions, because a good monochrome image is made in the color mix, not by removing the color.
• Tone with gradients Gradient maps and light effects for color toning, one of the most controllable ways to grade an image in Photoshop.
• Change any color Isolating and replacing a specific hue convincingly, which is a coloring skill as much as a retouching one.
• Light and color together Advanced lighting and coloring, where the light being painted in and the color being graded are the same decision.

Who This Path Is For

Photographers whose images are technically correct and visually forgettable. Color is usually what separates a competent edit from one with a point of view, and it is the thing most self-taught editors skip because it has no obvious right answer.

It is also the path for anyone trying to build a recognizable style. The four named looks are taught as constructions you can take apart, so the goal is not to copy them but to understand what makes a look consistent enough to become yours.

You should be comfortable with layers and masks in Photoshop, and with the Develop module in Lightroom. Everything about color itself is taught from the beginning.

What You Need

• Photoshop Used for most of the path. Any recent version.
• Lightroom Classic or mobile For the grading tutorial.
• A calibrated monitor Genuinely worth it here. Color work on an uncalibrated display teaches the wrong lessons.
• Sample files Included, so you can grade the same images as the instructor.

How Long It Takes

Nine full tutorials. Most people spend five to seven weeks working through them, then keep returning to individual look tutorials when a project calls for a particular treatment.

If you only do one, make it black and white. It forces you to think about tonal relationships without color to hide behind, and it improves everything else in the path.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a PHLEARN PRO membership?

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

Should I color in Lightroom or Photoshop?

Lightroom for a consistent base across a whole shoot; Photoshop for the last ten percent on a single image. The path covers both and is explicit about which belongs where.

How do I keep a look consistent across a shoot?

Build the look on one representative image, understand which adjustments carry it, then apply and fine-tune it across the set in Lightroom. The grading tutorial covers this workflow directly.

Will these looks suit my photography?

The four named looks cover most of the current commercial range, but they are taught as method rather than recipe. The point is to be able to build a fifth one that is yours.

Do I have to watch them in order?

No. The grading and gradient tutorials teach the underlying tools, so doing those early makes the four look tutorials easier to follow.

Student Reviews

Where to Go Next

• Lightroom Learning Path Apply a look consistently across an entire shoot.
• Retouching Learning Path Clean the image before you grade it.
• Photoshop Learning Path The layer and masking foundation this path assumes.
• Special Effects Learning Path Push color further into stylized treatments.