You should be using the Keyboard Shortcuts for Lightroom Classic.
Tapping the “D” key brings you right to the Develop module
The more you use Keyboard Shortcuts for Lightroom Classic, the less time you’ll spend hunting for menus and buttons. And that means less stress, more productivity and definitely more Lightroom happiness.
For example, when you want to develop an image, tap D for Develop. To return to the Library from the Develop module, just press G for the Library grid view. Don’t tap L for the Library, which is a common mistake, as that will put you in “lightbox” view which darkens and hides the Lightroom interface. A little disorienting if you didn’t expect that to happen. If it does, keep tapping L to return to your standard view.
So, D for Develop and G for grid. L for Lightbox. I bet you didn’t even know Lightroom had a Lightbox mode. Easy, right? Here are a few more:
Tapping the J key in the Library cycles through the metadata options
Wanna make a print? Command (Control on the PC) P takes you right to the Print module. You probably know that the Tab key hides the side panels, but did you know that pressing Shift and Tab hides the side panels and the filmstrip at the bottom. More screen space if you’re working on a laptop! Just tapping on the + and – keys (Mac and PC) will increase or decrease the size of your Library Grid thumbnails. And here’s something that will change the way you look at thumbnails – tap the J key while you’re in the Library and show the metadata associated with each photo. You can choose what data you is displayed by going to the top menu and choosing View>View Options to change the settings.
These Keyboard Shortcuts for Lightroom Classic speed your workflow, but more importantly, you’ll find working in Lightroom more of a pleasure, not having to move your cursor here and there, pulling down menus and reaching for buttons. And although the shortcuts are incredibly useful, some of the keystrokes used in the Library, will produce different results if used in the Develop module.
Sign up for Lightroom Guy’s Newsletter on the right of this article to download our cheat sheet of our PDF of frequently used Keyboard Shortcuts for Lightroom Classic. To get the full list of Keyboard Shortcuts for Lightroom Classic, you can see them on the Adobe site here, but you’ll like our cheat sheet better; it has most of the shortcuts you’ll want to use anyway.
Hovering over the slider and tapping the up/down arrow keys is my favorite for making incremental adjustments. It gives me the most control over my adjustment settings. And, while holding down the SHIFT key while tapping the up/down arrows will make larger changes, holding down the OPTION key (ALT on the PC) will make smaller changes. It’s the most exact way to make critical adjustments when developing in Lightroom.
Today, Adobe has released Lightroom CC 2015 6.9 and Adobe Camera Raw 9.9 – Lots of updates!
Keep in mind that there’s no guarantee of recovering your photos off a failed hard drive – at any price. A data loss without a backup usually means going deeper into a rabbit hole.
Backing up is life insurance for hard drives and your legacy photos. Should you lose or accidentally discard anything while organizing, you can return to your backup and restore the photo(s) or catalog in question. And, please don’t plan to back up after you’re organized. Do it before you start! You’ll want to keep your old catalog and photos intact until you know everything is in order.
Maybe in the future Adobe will put a small © badge on copyrighted photos. But for now, you’ll have to look to see that the preset pulldown menu shows your copyright and not None.
