58 Essential Lightroom Keyboard Shortcuts to Speed Up Your Editing

As a professional photographer, a huge portion of my time is spent editing photos in Adobe Lightroom Classic. And one of the best ways I‘ve found to drastically reduce the time I spend on repetitive editing tasks is to master Lightroom‘s plethora of keyboard shortcuts.

While it takes some practice and muscle memory to learn shortcuts, it‘s so worth it. Moving your hand off the mouse or trackpad to press a couple keys is much faster than dragging your cursor across the screen and clicking through menus.

In this ultimate guide, I‘ll share 58 of the most useful Lightroom keyboard shortcuts that every photographer should know, across both Windows and macOS. I‘ll cover general shortcuts, culling shortcuts, editing shortcuts in the Develop module, and new masking shortcuts.

I‘ll also explain how to find and customize Lightroom‘s shortcuts, and what to do if your shortcuts aren‘t working properly.

By the end, you‘ll have a framework to start integrating shortcuts into your own Lightroom workflow so you can speed through your editing sessions. Let‘s get started!

How to Use This Lightroom Keyboard Shortcuts Guide

For shortcuts that use different keys on Windows vs Mac, I‘ll write them like this:

Ctrl or Cmd + V

Where Ctrl + V is the Windows version and Cmd + V is for Mac.

I‘ve grouped the shortcuts into categories (general use, culling, editing, etc.) to make it easier to learn the ones most relevant to your needs. I recommend starting with the Frequently Used shortcuts section to master the essentials first.

Frequently Used Lightroom Shortcuts

These are the shortcuts I use constantly and recommend every Lightroom user memorize first:

• Ctrl or Cmd + Z – Undo the last action. Keep pressing to continue undoing recent actions.
• Ctrl or Cmd + Y – Redo the last undone action
• D – Go to the Develop module
• E – Go to the Library module‘s Loupe view
• G – Go to the Library module‘s Grid view
• Ctrl or Cmd + E – Edit the selected photo in Photoshop
• Ctrl or Cmd + Shift + E – Export the selected photos
• Backspace or Delete – Delete the selected photo
• \ – Toggle before/after view of edits
• Tab – Hide/show side panels
• Spacebar – Activate the Hand/Pan tool to move around image

Lightroom Culling Shortcuts

When reviewing a new batch of photos, these shortcuts will dramatically speed up your culling process to select the keepers and reject the duds:

• 1 through 5 – Set star rating from 1 to 5
• Shift + 6 through Shift + 9 – Add a color label
• P – Flag photo as a Pick
• X – Reject photo
• U – Unflag photo as a Pick or Rejected
• Ctrl or Cmd + Backspace – Delete all rejected photos
• B – Add photo to Quick Collection
• Z – Zoom to 100%
• Ctrl/Cmd + +/- – Zoom in/out
• Left/Right Arrows – Go to previous/next photo
• Caps Lock – Auto-advance to next photo after rating/flagging
• Ctrl/Cmd + [ ] – Rotate photo left/right

Lightroom Editing Shortcuts (Develop Module)

When you‘re ready to start editing, switch over to the Develop module (D) and use these shortcuts to quickly access key editing tools and features:

• Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + C – Copy edit settings
• Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + V – Paste edit settings
• Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + S – Sync edit settings to multiple photos
• R – Activate the Crop Overlay tool
• O – Cycle crop grid overlay
• Shift + O – Cycle crop grid overlay orientation
• X – Swap crop aspect ratio
• Q – Activate the Spot Removal tool
• Shift + T – Toggle between Clone/Heal modes in Spot Removal
• J – Show clipping indicators
• Ctrl/Cmd + 1/2/3 – Open Basic, Tone Curve, and HSL edit panels
• Shift +/- – Increase/decrease Exposure by 0.3
• Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + 1/2/3/4 – Open various left panels like Presets, History, etc.

Lightroom Masking Shortcuts

The new masking tools are incredibly powerful for making localized adjustments. Speed up your masking workflow with these shortcuts:

• Shift + W – Open the Masks panel
• O – Show/hide mask overlay
• K – Activate the Brush mask tool
• Alt/Opt – Hold to erase areas of a brush mask
• [ and ] – Decrease/increase brush size
• Ctrl/Cmd + [ and Ctrl/Cmd + ] – Decrease/increase brush feather
• M – Activate the Linear Gradient mask tool
• Shift + M – Activate the Radial Gradient mask tool
• Shift + J – Select Color Range mask
• Shift + Q – Select Luminance Range mask
• Shift + Z – Select Depth Range mask

How to Find More Lightroom Keyboard Shortcuts

There are hundreds of Lightroom shortcuts, so I‘ve focused this guide on the ones I consider most essential from my own photography work. To find others, you can:

1. Look in the menus – Many shortcuts are listed next to their command in Lightroom‘s menus
2. Hover over tools – After a couple seconds, a tooltip will appear showing that tool‘s shortcut
3. Consult Adobe‘s help documentation – They maintain a complete list of default Lightroom shortcuts

Customizing Lightroom Keyboard Shortcuts

On Windows, customizing shortcuts is a cumbersome process that requires editing config files. But on macOS, you can create custom Lightroom shortcuts right from the System Preferences:

1. Go to Applications > System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts tab
2. Click App Shortcuts in the left sidebar
3. Click the + button to add a new shortcut
4. Choose Lightroom Classic from the Application dropdown
5. Enter the exact menu command you want to add a shortcut for
6. Click the Keyboard Shortcut box and press the desired key combination
7. Click Add to save the new shortcut

Troubleshooting Lightroom Shortcuts Not Working

If your Lightroom shortcuts stop working, here are a few things you can try:

Reset Lightroom preferences:

1. Close Lightroom
2. Hold Alt+Shift (Windows) or Opt+Shift (Mac) while reopening Lightroom
3. Click Yes when prompted to Reset Preferences

Check for conflicts with other app shortcuts:

• Graphics card control panels like NVIDIA and AMD often use hotkeys that can interfere with Lightroom
• Check if you‘re running any other apps that use the same key combos and disable those shortcuts if possible

Start Speeding Up Your Lightroom Workflow!

Lightroom keyboard shortcuts can seem overwhelming at first, but you don‘t need to memorize all 58 I covered in this guide right away.

Start with the Frequently Used shortcuts and look for shortcuts for the tools and commands you use the most. Jot a few down on a sticky note until you build the muscle memory. Then keep expanding your shortcut vocabulary.

Before you know it, you‘ll be flying through your Lightroom editing sessions faster than ever! Your wrist and mouse hand will surely thank you.

Do you have a favorite Lightroom shortcut I didn‘t mention? Or a tip for learning shortcuts more quickly? Let me know in the comments below!