Image Editing, Colour Grading & Manipulation
Turn a flat photo into an image with a feeling: free tools on any phone or browser, colour grading, grading dark skin properly, high-end retouching, masks and compositing — and where the ethical line sits.
What you'll learn
- Edit photos properly on an Android phone, for free
- Use Photopea and GIMP as a complete free Photoshop replacement
- Correct exposure, white balance and colour before styling anything
- Grade an image deliberately, and build a look that is yours
- Grade dark skin so it looks rich rather than grey, orange or plastic
- Retouch skin at a high standard without making people look like plastic
- Cut anything out with masks and precise selections
- Composite several photographs into one believable image
- Know where editing becomes deception, and refuse to cross it
Course content
Part 1. Start here1 lesson
Part 2. Editing on your phone, for free5 lessons
Part 3. A free Photoshop, in your browser5 lessons
Part 4. Colour: what it does to the person looking5 lessons
Part 5. Colour grading5 lessons
Part 6. Grading dark skin properly5 lessons
Part 7. Retouching people5 lessons
- Smoothing skin with frequency separationby Eustace Photography7 min
- High-end skin retouching for beginnersby Ekow Dediha Photography13 min
- Frequency separation, a second walkthroughby Ronnix Photography13 min
- High-end retouching like a professionalby Ekow Dediha Photography12 min
- How far to retouch — and where to stop
Part 8. Masks and selections: cutting anything out3 lessons
Part 9. Manipulation: an image that never existed5 lessons
Part 10. Final project1 lesson
Capstone project: Final project: three edits that show everything. You finish by building something real; a mentor reviews it before your certificate is issued.
About this course
The difference between a photo and an image people stop scrolling for is almost always the edit. This course teaches editing from the ground up using tools that cost nothing: Snapseed and Lightroom Mobile on an Android phone, Photopea in any browser, and GIMP on a computer — with Photoshop techniques that transfer to all of them. You'll learn what colour actually does to a viewer, the real difference between correction and grading, and how to build a look of your own instead of dropping on someone's preset. A full section covers grading dark skin properly, taught by African editors, because default presets and tutorials routinely turn it grey, orange or plastic. Then high-end skin retouching, masks and precise selections, and compositing — putting together an image that never existed — alongside a clear-eyed lesson on where editing stops being editing and becomes a lie. About 7¼ hours of core video, plus over 2 hours of optional deep dives.
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