For: Lightroom 4+

Here are a couple of handy shortcuts for altering an image’s develop settings from the Library Module (as well as the Develop Module).

In Adobe Photoshop Lightroom there are many places where you might want to expand or collapse multiple items all at once; the Folders list, Collections list, or keywords list for example.

If you hold the alt-key (option on Mac OS) and click the triangle next to the entry to expand or collapse it, it will expand or collapse that entry and any sub entries that can also be expand or collapsed.

Taking it a step further alt-clicking (option-clicking) on the panels themselves will switch them into solo mode, where only the active panel will be expanded, and everything else will just be a title. You can tell if the panels are in solo mode because their open/close arrows go from being solid to being dotted.

One final tip, control-clicking (command-clicking on a mac) a panel title will expand or collapse all panels on that side of the screen.

For: Lightroom 3+

• Create your watermark image in Photoshop or another graphic editor
  • Make sure it’s big enough that it won’t need to be scaled up
  • Make sure the background is transparent
  • Simplify any color schemes
  • Make sure your text has a contrasting border
  • Save your watermark image as a 24-bit PNG (PNG-24) with transparency
• Create a Watermark to apply to your images on export in Lightroom
  • Open the Watermark Editor (Edit -> Edit Watermarks…)
  • In the top right corner where it says Watermark Style, pick “Graphic”
  • In the Open File dialog that pops up, navigate to where you saved your watermark image from your image editor
  • Adjust the opacity, proportion, inset, and anchor point under Watermark Effects to position the watermark where you want it
  • Save your watermark by clicking the save button in the lower right corner of the Watermark Editor window
    • If there is no save button, or you’re updating an existing watermark, use the Save Current Settings as New Preset or Update Preset… options from the drop-down menu in the top left corner of the Watermark Editor.
• Close the Watermark Editor window, and begin using your watermark when you export images

When in crop mode (shortcut key R) you can quickly use the Straighten tool by holding the CTRL key (Command on a Mac).

I never found the the built in options in Lightroom’s metadata pallet to suit my needs. They either were too short and didn’t have the stuff I wanted, or too long and I had to scroll a lot. Fortunately, Adobe lets you create custom metadata field lists so you can have it your way.

This is what I use, in fact I almost never change away from it. It’s designed such that on my 1920×1600 screen I can see at a glance all the information I want about file size, exposure, lens, camera settings, as well as be able to edit the title, headline, and caption fields without having to scroll and while the Histogram and Keywording panels are expanded.

Extract CombinedImage.zip and copy the file CombinedImage.lrtemplate to %appdata%\Adobe\Lightroom\Metadata Filed Lists/ on Windows or ~/Library/Adobe/Lightroom/Metadata Field Lists/ on Mac OS.

If the Metadata Field Lists folder doesn’t exist, as is the case with newer Lightroom installs (starting with version 3 or 4) then you’ll need to create it.

The file and instructions are provided as is and without warranty or support. Feel free to modify and redistribute the provided lrtemplate file.

In Lightroom 3 you can rate, flag, or label an image and advance to the next image automatically without having the “Auto Advance” mode enabled by holding the SHIFT key when you press the shortcut for the action you want to take.

For example, to reject an image you can hit X, to reject and advance you hit SHIFT+X.

This works with all the keys on the main keyboard but not the numpad.