Learning Lightroom shortcuts helps streamline your workflow and increase productivity when editing photos. While there are somewhere around 300 shortcuts in Adobe Lightroom Classic, it can be hard to remember them all. I’ve picked out a handful that you can implement easily and immediately. In our fast-paced world, speeding up your editing sessions frees up your time to focus on more important things. Let’s get to it!
Basic Editing Shortcuts
Probably my most used Lightroom shortcut is Undo: ⌘+Z (Mac) / Ctrl+Z (Windows). I tend to overedit at times and fall into the perfectionist trap, so having a quick way to undo a change makes editing much more efficient.
I also crop all of my photos to a 16 x 9 aspect ratio. You can turn the crop function on/off by pressing the R button. Lightroom also has composition grids that you can cycle through by pressing O while in crop mode. Shift + O will flip some of the grids.
If you want to flag or unflag certain photos you can do so by pressing P (Flag as Pick) or U (Unflag). Additionally, you can rate your photos on a scale of 1 to 5 stars by pressing the corresponding number key. Pressing zero resets the rating by removing the stars. You can use the star rating system to group images as a collection, which we’ll discuss further in this article.
If I’m editing for a long period of time, I usually need to reset my eyes at some point. Before I step away from the computer, I’ll put the image in Full Screen by pressing F. Upon my return, the first thing I see is a full-sized version of my photo. This helps me decide if it needs any more tweaking or if it’s good to go.
Lightroom also has a Lights Mode which you can cycle through by pressing L a few times. It dims everything around the image you’re editing, helping increase your focus.
Finally, if you are planning on doing batch exporting, you can press B to add photos to your Quick Collection. This groups photos in a single collection so you don’t have to hunt for them one by one later.
Recap:
Undo: ⌘+Z (Mac) / Ctrl+Z (Windows)
Crop: R
Flag as Pick: P
Unflag: U
Ratings: 1 (1 star), 2 (2 stars), etc. 0 (remove stars)
Full Screen Preview: F
Lights Mode: L (cycle 3 times)
Add/Remove Images to Quick Collection: B
Apply Preset On Import
Using presets is common practice these days, as they help with image uniformity and speed up editing workflow.
To maximize your time, you can add a single preset to all your photos at the same time when importing them into your Lightroom catalog.
To import photos into a new catalog, press Shift + ⌘ + I, or select File > Import Photos and Video… from the Menu bar.
Once you’ve located the images you wish to import, the right-side panel has a drop-down menu called “Apply During Import”. Click on it and choose the preset you wish to apply to the images you’re importing.
Then click the Import button in the bottom right corner. Applying the preset to each photo via this technique takes some time for Lightroom to process, but it’s faster than applying them one by one as you edit.
Set Up The Develop Panel
The Develop Panel is located on the right side of the screen when you’re in the Develop Module. The panel has plenty of editing functions but you may not use all of them regularly. By customizing the various sections of the Develop Panel, you can set it up to your preference. For example, I rarely use the Split Toning or Detail sections. By moving these sections to the bottom of the panel, it saves time by not having to scroll past sections I don’t even use.
To customize the Develop Panel, right-click on any of the section titles (ie. Tone Curve, Basic, HSL/Color, etc.). When the menu pops up, choose “Customize Develop Panel”. You can then re-order the sections to your preference, and even fully remove some if you never use them.
History
The History panel is an important tool found on the left of the Develop Module. It logs every single action you’ve taken when editing a photo – from the initial import, to any edits, to the final export. Actions are logged in order with the most recent on top.
The History panel becomes invaluable when you realize you can see what you’ve done to your photos long after you’ve edited them. You may have a photo from 3 years ago but you forgot how you edited it, and have no idea which preset you used. A quick check of the History panel shows you every step you took along the way.
Before & After
The Before & After toggle function is proof of how powerful Lightroom is, and how editing can completely change the feel of a photo. It can be used in a few different ways.
The first is by pressing the \ key. This will toggle between your edit and the original image.
The second is by showing a side-by-side comparison of the original imported image next to the edited one. To toggle it, press Y.
In addition to a Left/Right comparison, you can also set the Before & After to Top/Bottom, or Split Screen. Change it by clicking on the YY icon or the upside-down triangle next to it.
The third way you can control this is by turning on View Modes on the Tool Bar, while in Before & After Mode. In the bottom right corner of the Develop Module window (underneath your image), you’ll see a small upside-down triangle on the Tool Bar. Click it and a menu pops up. From here you can add various clickable shortcut functions to the Tool Bar.
Before & After View Modes: A Word
I do have a gripe about the View Modes function where Before & After is concerned though. This menu allows you to add 3 Before & After functions to the Tool Bar:
- Copy Before’s settings to After
- Copy After’s settings to Before
- Swap Before & After settings
These can be fun to play around with I suppose, although I’m not sure why they’re necessary. If you choose option 1 or 3, Lightroom allows you to easily undo them.
My gripe is with option 2 – Copy After’s settings to Before.
If you click on the “Copy After’s settings to Before” button, the action won’t be logged in the History like options 1 and 3 are. This means you can’t Undo it and your Before image becomes edited.
The only way to revert the Before image back to its original state is by scrolling to the Import action in the image History. Right-click on the Import action and choose “Copy History Step Settings To Before”. This reverts the Before image back to its original form while leaving the rest of the image’s History actions intact.
I’d highly recommend leaving Before & After unchecked in the View Modes. You can still toggle the Before & After function by pressing Y, and you won’t have the headache of messing up your Before image and scrambling to fix it.
Change The Background Color
The color around the image you’re editing can be changed. By default, Lightroom sets the mat at white, but you can make it light gray, medium gray, dark gray, darker gray, or black. Personally, I usually stick with white as it isolates the image well, but I also use the medium gray setting at times to make the colors pop.
To change the background color, right click on any area of the mat around the image. Then select the color you desire.
Match Total Exposures
The Match Total Exposures feature allows you to apply the same exposure to a batch of images with a single click. Depending on how you’ve exposed your photos in-camera, this Lightroom shortcut may or may not come in handy. Sometimes it works very well, but other times it can result in a mixture of overexposed or underexposed images.
To use the feature, click on a photo that you want to use as your exposure reference point. Hold down ⌘ and click on any other photos in the film strip that you want to have the same exposure. Then go to the Menu Bar and select Settings > Match Total Exposures.
Reference View
Reference View is a comparison tool that helps give your images uniformity. It’s easy to use and shows you what areas need to be tweaked to get them more in line with each other.
Press Shift + R to bring up Reference View. In the Tool Bar, you can choose between stacking two photos, or comparing them side-by-side. The left (or top) photo is the Reference image (the one you want to match to), and the right (or bottom) photo is the Active image (the one currently selected in your film strip).
To select the Reference image, simply drag a photo from the film strip to the Reference window.
Collections
Collections is an organizational tool that’s heavily underutilized by photographers. Where Lightroom shortcuts are concerned, it can be a game-changer once you understand how it works.
Most photographers shoot tons of photos, which can be hard to keep track of during the editing phase. As previously discussed, in any catalog, you can add photos to a Quick Collection, flag them, and rate them (and even color-code them!). These techniques help you quickly locate images you want to export.
Collections take all of that to the next level.
The Collections menu is to the left of the Develop Module. Catalogs already have a “Smart Collection” option. But you can create your own collections as well. This makes it easy to recall images flagged for specific things, such as blog posts or social media. You can create collections titled “Best Photos”, or “Print”, keeping all your top photos organized and easy to recall. It’s essentially a customized folder hierarchy.
The upside is that using Collections doesn’t create duplicate images. This means it won’t take up more hard drive space. Instead, the location of the image is stored in the Collection folder, rather than a duplicate image (which would quickly balloon hard drive space).
The downside of Collections is that they’re specific to the catalog you’re working in. So if have a catalog of Vietnam images and a separate catalog of France images, you’d have to set up collection folders in each one.
Many Lightroom users believe the fewer catalogs you have, the better. They might not be wrong.
You could organize all of your best travel photos in a single travel photography catalog, rather than jumping between multiple catalogs dedicated to different travel destinations. However, the potential downside is that some people find large catalogs slow down Lightroom’s processing speed.
Create A Virtual Copy
One of the great things about digital photography is that you can edit a picture any way you want, and as many times as you want. You can do this by creating a virtual copy of the image, which is essentially a duplicate. This is handy for comparing different presets or editing techniques on the same photo. By duplicating it, you have endless options at your disposal.
To do this, right-click the photo (either in the Develop Module or the film strip), and choose “Create A Virtual Copy”. Additionally, virtual copies can also be edited in Photoshop if need be.
Spot Removal
Got a photo that has an unusual amount of dust, dirt, specks, or small imperfections on it? Instead of straining your eyes to find out where all the spots are, there’s an easier way.
Press Q to activate the Spot Removal tool.
In the Tool Bar below the image, locate the Visualize Spots checkbox and activate it (or press A). This inverts the image so you can pick out the spots easier. A slider is also provided for greater control over the number of spots that are brought out. You can then go through the photo and click away to remove the dots.
Clipping
Clipping is one of those issues that photographers are either hyperaware of or could care less about. The truth is somewhere in the middle.
Clipping occurs when parts of the RAW image file lose information in either the whites or blacks. If the whites are too white, they’re considered overexposed or blown out. When blacks are too black, they’re considered underexposed and you won’t be able to see textures in the shadows.
But when it comes down to it, these levels all depend on how you want your photo to look and feel. You might want a bright sky or fewer details in the shadows. Knowing about clipping gives you the knowledge and flexibility to edit to your liking.
To find out if you have clipped areas in your photo, press J. Clipped black levels show up as blue, and clipped white levels show as red. Also, take a look at the Histogram. The far left of it represents black levels, and the far right represents white levels. When the image is clipped, the small arrows at the top of the Histogram turn white to notify you.
To edit these levels to your preference, use the “Highlights” and “Shadows” sliders in the “Basic” section of the Develop Panel. In this example, I took down the highlights substantially (from +16 to -84) to get the photo into an “acceptable” range according to the Histogram.
Edit Using Photoshop
At times, you may need to make edits that require something more powerful than Lightroom. Adobe makes things simple by linking Lightroom with Photoshop, making for a seamless transition and uninterrupted workflow.
To edit with Photoshop, first, make all the edits you need to in Lightroom. Once this is done, press ⌘+E, and Photoshop will open. The image will be automatically imported from Lightroom. Make any edits you need to in Photoshop and then save it by pressing ⌘+S. Exit Photoshop with ⌘+Q and the edited image will be automatically sent back to Lightroom.
You’ll notice that you now have two files, the pre-Photoshopped RAW file, and the Photoshopped file, which will be in TIFF format. This happens because Photoshop can’t edit RAW files. Upon editing in Photoshop, Lightroom sends it an RGB file, which is what you’ll be editing. But, because it’s not saved, the RAW file extension still shows. Once you save it in Photoshop, it gets converted to TIFF format. You can then export the TIFF file using Lightroom.
There’s No Shortcuts in Life, Only in Lightroom
Lightroom shortcuts can make a considerable difference in your editing sessions. They may take some getting used to, but once you memorize the tricks outlined above, they’ll completely change how you edit and decrease the amount of time you’re spending in front of the computer.
For a more extensive list, head over to Adobe’s Lightroom Keyboard Shortcuts page.
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