Hi Kevin,
There are quite a few choices for software packages that will calibrate your images, and some will calibrate and perform the photometry. Did I see somewhere that you are learning to use the AAVSO VPhot software? I don’t believe that has calibration facilities? It’s amazing on the calibration side of things.
I, personally, use AstroArt 8 (AA8) for my photometry and this is because it can be scripted and controlled by my Python programs. AA8 also performs the calibration. I prefer to use PixInsight to produce my calibration master files, but that’s only because I’m well versed in PI and it has an incredible set of calibration processes. AA8 would do the job too.
Having said all this, I’ve recently been using the excellent Tycho Tracker program to do photometry. This also copes with calibration. I would recommend looking at this and there are lots of very good videos on YouTube by the author of the Tycho software and he is very responsive with questions. There is a small one off cost for the Pro version but it is well worth a look.
Other than that, there is Maxim DL which is widely used for calibration and photometry. Also AstroImageJ (free) is incredible but takes a bit of learning.
You could use the free DeepSkyStacker for calibration.
I know lots of people swear by Siril which I believe is free.
A few links:
https://www.tycho-tracker.com/
https://siril.org/
https://www.astro.louisville.edu/software/astroimagej/
http://deepskystacker.free.fr/english/index.html
Cheers
Ian.