7 awesome Lightroom tricks you need to know
Post-processing is an important element in photography and as a photographer, you most likely have come across Adobe Lightroom. I am using this amazing tool for quite some time now but believe it or not I only recently discovered some outstanding functionality. I, therefore, am more than happy to share 7 awesome Lightroom tricks you need to know. In case you want to dive straight into the video using the following link.
Table of content
- Set as rejected
- Quick collections
- Crop overlay
- Remove spot removals
- Reset adjustment sliders
- Use clipping
- Compare before and after
- Video of my 7 awesome Lightroom tricks you need to know
Set as rejected
The first of my 7 awesome Lightroom tricks you need to know is the set as a rejected option. Being organized has become a key element in my photography life. I shoot a lot of frames and if I wouldn’t constantly delete stuff I would end up with a graveyard of images, my disks would turn nuts and I most likely wouldn’t find images anymore that I like.
Shortcuts
- X to set as rejected
- U to remove the flag
- CMD + backspace (<-) to delete the rejected images
Quick collections
Quick collections are something I for a long time ignored. However, nowadays I see the importance of this great feature. I use it for newly imported images I later would like to use for Instagram, when I do presentations, or in many other circumstances.
Shortcuts
- B to add an image to the quick collection
- B to remove an added image from the quick collection
- CMD + B to switch between a folder and the quick collection
CROP OVERLAY
The crop overlay is a feature you very likely have been using in Lightroom already but I bet you don’t know yet all the amazing things it can do for you. I do much more than just cropping. I go by the mnemonic ROHLAX where each letter stands for a function within the tool.
Shortcuts
- R to pull up the crop overlay tool – if you hit R again you apply the crop
- O to change between different crop overlay patterns
- H to hide/unhide the crop overlay pattern
- L to view your to be cropped image in a lightbox or on an entirely dark background
- A to lock/unlock a predefined width and height ratio
- X to switch between horizontal and vertical crop
- CMD to pull up a ruler and draw a line to straighten
- ALT to switch from left-top to center point when changing the cropped area
REMOVE SPOT REMOVALS
My 4th of the 7 awesome Lightroom tricks you need to know is how to remove spot removals. It always took me quite some time to do proper spot removals especially when I had to add and remove the spot removals. I am sure this trick helps you to become more efficient.
Shortcuts
- Q to pull up the spot removals
- Alt to switch between spot removal and the scissors that remove the spot removals
- Bonus trick: Q and Shift to switch between clone and heal
Reset adjustment sliders
Lightroom has a lot of adjustment sliders and they can do great things for you. However, sometimes you want to set back the sliders to initial and you can do so of course by dragging either the slider to null or overwriting the value with 0. A much faster way however is to double click on the label in front of the slider.
Shortcuts
- Double click the label
- Bonus trick: Alt to pull up the reset all label
Use clipping
The clipping tool indicates where you block shadows or have overexposed your image. I highly encourage you to use the tool not only for post-processing reasons but also to become better as a photographer.
Shortcuts
- J to activate/deactivate the clipping tool
Compare before and after
The last of my 7 awesome Lightroom tricks you need to know is the before and after feature. Oh boy if I just would have known that feature earlier. It’s such a great way to compare your image after post-processing with the raw image straight out of the camera.
Shortcuts
- Y to activate/deactivate the comparison view
Video of my 7 awesome Lightroom tricks you need to know
Have fun watching!
Let me know your thoughts
I hope this article was helpful for you. If there is anything you are looking for, please let me know and I try to find examples to discuss.
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