Description
Color grading is one of the most expressive parts of the photo editing process. With the power to make an image feel dark and mysterious, light and airy, cool and tranquil, or warm and kinetic, color can take your images to surprising places.
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- 200+ More Professional Courses
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THIS COURSE INCLUDES
- 4 Sample Images
- 3 Lightroom Presets
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Advanced Color Grading
Master the Art of Color
Professional color grading requires care and precision. Learn how to create beautiful looks by controlling highlights, shadows, hue, saturation, lightness, vibrance, detail, and more.
AFTER
ORIGINAL
What is Color Grading?
You’ve probably heard the terms ‘color correction’ and ‘color grading’ before, but what do they mean? And what’s the difference? Color correction is about helping your images look balanced and natural. It’s important to have a steady, neutral foundation before adding more stylistic adjustments. Color grading, on the other hand, is all about stylistic adjustments. In this course we show you how to use coloring and color tools to give your images a stunning, evocative look.
Color Grading in Lightroom Classic
Lightroom has a robust suite of tools to help you color and tone your images with precision and care. From basic adjustments like white balance and exposure to more advanced options like the Tone Curve and HSL sliders, we break down each and every tool you can use to take your images to the next level.
Professional Color Grading
Professional color grading is all about precision, control, and taking ownership of every color in an image. We show you how to analyze colors, target specific areas of an image to apply color, and use basic color theory to create beautiful looks.
AFTER
ORIGINAL
Change Colors in Lightroom
Getting the exact look and feel we want sometimes requires us to completely change the colors of objects in our photos. Learn how to accurately select and change any color in Lightroom
Range Masking
Range Masking is one of the most powerful and advanced editing tools Lightroom has to offer. Learn how to use Range Masking to target specific areas of an image to make extremely accurate, localized edits for a polished and professional result.
The Tone Curve
Similar to Curves in Photoshop, the Tone Curve in Lightroom is a workhorse for making advanced adjustments to exposure and color. By the end of this course you’ll be a master of this important tool and you’ll feel confident using it to make a wide variety of edits to your photos.
Professional Color Grading Tools
AFTER
ORIGINAL
The Color Grading Panel
Relatively new to Lightroom Classic, we cover the appropriately-named Color Grading Tool. This tool has everything you need to apply beautiful coloring to an image faster than ever before.
Highlights, Midtones & Shadows
Light and shadow are the defining features of any photograph. We show you multiple tools and techniques that allow you to edit those areas of light and dark independently–carefully sculpting your edits for a more professional finish.
Lightroom Presets
Want to share your looks with others? Try looks from your some of your favorite artists? Apply consistent coloring across an album of images? Speed up your workflow? Lightroom Presets can do it all and more. Learn how to create, save, and load Presets into Lightroom Classic. Best of all, we include 3 exclusive Presets in the course! And if you’re looking for more, check out our growing library of Lightroom Presets and Color Grading LUTs.
Aaron Nace
PHLEARN Founder – Class Instructor
Aaron Nace is a photographer, Photoshop artist and founder of PHLEARN. He is the #1 Photoshop instructor in the world with millions of YouTube subscribers.
Reviews
FAQ
This tutorial includes 5 video tutorials, 4 sample images, and 3 Lightroom Presets.
Download the sample images and assets at the top of the page.
Yes, every tutorial on PHLEARN is included in the PHLEARN PRO Subscription.
We suggest using the latest version of Photoshop, but our tutorials are designed to be compatible with CS4, CS5, CS6 & Photoshop CC. Get the latest version of Photoshop from Adobe.
Download the course files at the top of this page.
You’ll find answers to some of the most common questions in our Help Center. If what you need isn’t covered, you can submit a question to our all-star customer support team and they’ll get back to you right away!
Artist Credit
Special thanks to Maria Orlova, Rachel Claire, Tony Schnagl, Ivan Samkov. Images for this PRO course were sourced from Pexels.
Thank you so much for explaining color grading, which used to be a little difficult for me. Now I understand that very well.
After those long time using Lightroom, now I finally have a good knowledge of using the powerful HSL through range masking. Thank your for your great lesson!
Another Great Lesson!!!!
Ur lessons are superb,funny and super easy to follow. Thank you.
Thank you so much. I love and learn a lot from it.
Wonderful and to the point. Everything you need when it comes to color grading in LR and managing your presets!
Great and up-to-date section in Phlearn. It was my excuse to subscribe for another year 😉
Perfect quick explanation of the tools and always something new to learn.
Another great tutorial! It has made me want to learn more about color theory now. Would love to learn about cinematic colors like teal and orange and why they work so beautifully together.
Great tutorial as usual. I actually prefer to use LR to PS. I get that PS is much more powerful than LR and I do use it for individual edits but I just find LR so much more intuitive and user friendly. Looking forward to more LR tutorials as this has improved my workflow greatly. Thanks a lot Aaron,
Thanks a lot Aaron. Clear and essential.
Excellent demonstration of latest LR capability.
Hi Aaron, Thanks for a great tutorial. I’m a big fan of your way of teaching. Personally I don’t use Lightroom a lot, but I picked up a few great skills that I intent to use. One tip (you probably figured out yourself by now or already know): When you double-click a slider it resets. It’s faster than right clicking. Jurjen de Boer (Netherlands)
Thank you for this! Learned a ton just in the first section. It’s an eye opener!
You the best, Aaron Nace! This is so well explained that I have no problem understanding even though I’m not a native English speaker. Awesome job!! I’m off to the next lesson!
Great…as always! Short, concise, with examples. 3 different techniques to gain assurance with colour grading.
Wow Aaron! This is gold!!! I had a basic understanding of some of these tricks before, but you filled in all of the puzzle pieces for a complete picture. I love how you relate it to Photoshop as well. I am probably in Lightroom more often so I greatly appreciate these tutorials. Ultimately I want to be proficient with both programs. Your way of teaching has really enhanced my editing!
Great class, Aaron! With Lightroom Classic’s new color grading capabilities, what are the scenarios that you would still color grade in Photoshop? A better way to ask this: Are there limitations in using Lightroom for color editing? Thanks!