Photo Editing Essentials Learning Path

What You’ll Learn

Before any look, effect or composite, a photo needs the basics done well: the right exposure, honest color, clean tone, nothing distracting and sharp where it matters. The Photo Editing Essentials Learning Path is seven tutorials on exactly that, in the order you do them. It starts with the workflow from memory card to export, fixes exposure and blends brackets, spends thirty-two lessons on color and tone, applies it all to two real portraits, then finishes with the intermediate workflow and sharpening for screen and print.

• 1. Learn the editing workflow From the shoot to the export: culling, importing and organizing, the raw edit, Photoshop finishing and output, in twenty-four lessons.
• 2. Correct exposure Fixing an under- or over-exposed photo, including blending two versions of the same raw file.
• 3. Blend bracketed exposures by hand A manual HDR from bracketed raw files with channels and layer masks, natural instead of crunchy.
• 4. Master color and tone Thirty-two lessons on color theory, Curves, Levels, the Color Picker and Channels, the controls behind every edit.
• 5. Make over two portraits start to finish Cropping, a sky replacement, noise reduction, removing distractions and color, on two real photos.
• 6. Build the intermediate workflow Photo Editing 201: faster, more consistent edits across a whole shoot.
• 7. Sharpen and export Sharpening for screen and print, output sizes and the export settings that keep the quality.

Who This Path Is For

Anyone who has learned the programs and now wants their everyday photos to look consistently good, hobbyists moving from automatic edits to deliberate ones, and photographers who want a dependable routine before they add a style on top.

You should know your way around Photoshop and Lightroom. The editing itself is taught here.

What You Need

• Photoshop Any recent version. These are the tools that have not changed.
• Lightroom Classic For the workflow tutorials. Adobe Camera Raw works for the rest.
• Sample files Included for every tutorial, including the bracketed raw files.
• Your own photos This path is about routine. Edit your own after each step.

Completely new? Start with the Getting Started in Photoshop & Lightroom. For a particular look on top of a clean edit, see Creative Looks.

How Long It Takes

Seven tutorials and 109 lessons, about 25 hours of video. Photo Editing 201 and the color and tone course are the long ones, at over nine and over five hours; the exposure, HDR and sharpening tutorials are an hour or two each. At a few hours a week, plan on six to eight weeks.

Take the two long courses a chapter at a time. Everything here is meant to become habit, so repetition on your own photos matters more than speed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a PHLEARN PRO membership?

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

Photo Editing Essentials or Getting Started?

Getting Started teaches the programs. Photo Editing Essentials teaches the edit: what to do to a photo and in what order, once you know where the tools are.

Is this Lightroom or Photoshop?

Both. The workflow steps live in Lightroom and the detailed correction, color and sharpening in Photoshop, which is how most photographers work.

Do I have to follow the order?

It is built to be followed in order: workflow, correction, color, a full edit, then output. If your exposures are already right, step four is the one not to skip.

Are the 2017 to 2019 tutorials still accurate?

Yes. Curves, Levels, layer masks and sharpening have not changed. The newer AI tools speed up the cleanup step and are covered on the AI Photo Editing Learning Path.

Where to Go Next

• Creative Looks Learning Path A style on top of a clean edit.
• Object Removal & Cleanup Learning Path When the distraction is bigger than a spot.
• Lightroom Learning Path Lightroom from import to masks and color grading.
• Photoshop Tools & Techniques Learning Path The Photoshop tools in depth, one at a time.