7/15/2021 16 Lightroom Editing Tricks & Shortcuts (How many do you know?

) - Signature Edits - Improve Your Photography

16 Lightroom Editing Tips &

Shortcuts
these lightroom shortcuts & workflow
hacks will improve your editing &
speed up your workflow
In this Lightroom tutorial you’ll learn 16 Local Adjustment Brush tricks, tips & shortcuts to
help you improve your Lightroom editing workflow – How many do you know?!

Inside you’ll find a combination of keyboard shortcuts and hidden Lightroom features that you
might never have known existed. Let us know your favourite Lightroom tip / shortcut in the
comments below!

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Lightroom Shortcut #1

Press the “O” key to reveal your mask overlay

This tip is absolutely essential for fine tuning your adjustments and making sure you know
exactly which areas of an image you are effecting. Pressing the “o” key will toggle on a color
overlay to help you visually see where you are painting inside Lightroom.

Lightroom Adjustment Trick #2

Press shift+o to reveal mask color

If you find the default pink overlay is too intense, pressing shift and o will toggle different
colors for your overlay. This is a super unknown and hidden lightroom secret.

Lightroom Shortcut #3

Alt/option key = eraser toggle

Using alt/optionkey inside Lightroom Local Adjustments lets you quickly toggle between your
brush and your eraser, saving you TONS of time. The alt/option key is pretty much
Lightroom’s secret weapon. If you haven’t watched our video on the alt/option key in
Lightroom, you NEED to check it out!

Lightroom Adjustment Trick #4

Hold alt to adjust effect intensity

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Another alt option keyboard shortcut: Holding the alt/option key will allow you to drag the dot
from your adjustment layer left or right to adjust the intensity of your effect. Super handy and
saves you having to adjust all your slider settings manually!

Lightroom Adjustment Shortcut #5

Hold alt to reset settings

One more alt/option trick: Holding alt/option will toggle a “reset all” button on your effect
settings, allowing you to quickly reset all your brush settings without needing to reset
individual sliders.

Lightroom Adjustment Shortcut #6

Use automask to quickly select hard selections

If you don’t use the automask feature inside Lightroom, you are seriously missing out!
Lightroom’s automask tool saves tons of time AND helps you mask out complicated borders in
seconds that wouldn’t really be possible by hand. For an in depth walkthrough, make sure to
watch our tutorial on the automask in Lightroom.

Lightroom Secret Shortcut #7

Command key = toggle auto mask

This is a genius little trick I only recently came across, and it BLEW MY MIND! Simply
holding the command key down while painting with your adjustment brush will automatically
enable to automask feature, saving you having to manually turn automask off and on every
time you want to use it. SUPER HELPFUL!

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Lightroom Workflow Shortcut #8

Use the / key for A B Brush toggle

Find yourself switching between brushes in Lightroom? With the / keyboard shortcut you can
instantly switch between the A brush and B brush in Lightroom. Knowing the keyboard
shortcut for toggling between the different brushes in Lightroom will save you tons of time
editing photos. This Lightroom Editing Shortcut is one of our favs!

Lightroom Adjustment Brush Tip #9

Hold the shift key to create perfectly straight lines

If you’re ever editing Landscape photos or architecture / real estate photography, you’ll often
need to create masks along perfectly straight lines. Using the shift key in Lightroom lets you
instantly create straight lines between different points, giving you a perfect mask in a fraction
of the time.

Lightroom Adjustment Shortcut #10

Use Lightroom’s range mask to select specific color /

luminance
Sometimes automask in Lightroom just doesn’t work. When that’s the case, the color and
luminance range masks inside Lightroom’s local adjustment brushes and filters can save you
hours of tedious masking. Quickly mask out a certain color in your image, or select that blown
out sky using the luminance range mask. Its a great tool to have in your editing bag of tricks.

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Lightroom Quick Trick #11

Add any color you want to Lightroom

Once you’ve masked out part of your image, you can add color to that area using the
Lightroom color swatch in the bottom of your effects panel! Desaturate the mask and add
whatever color you like. Simply duplicate the mask to reach your desired intensity and effect.
This lets you change the color of pretty much anything in Lightroom. SUPER HANDY.

Lightroom Quick Trick #12

Add an overlay tint to your entire image

You don’t have to stop with local color adjustments! Using the color tool and a gradient filter
you can add a colorcast / color overlay to your entire image in Lightroom. This has got to be
one of the most helpful Lightroom secrets we’ve come across!

Lightroom Workflow Tip #13

Easily save & reuse your own brush presets

If you aren’t using local adjustment presets, you are wasting SO. MUCH. TIME!!!! Make sure
to save common settings that you use often as their own presets so that you don’t have to start
from scratch every time. Adjustment brush presets = more consistent editing in a fraction of
the time. BAM Lightroom productivity hack.

All our preset packs come with a full suite of local adjustment brush presets to help you with
your lightroom editing workflow. You can check them out here:

Lightroom Workflow Shortcut #14

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Use the ‘ key to invert the selection of your local

adjustment
Another go-to keyboard shortcut in Lightroom is the ‘ key. Selecting this key when using a
radial / graduated filter will invert your selection, allowing you to quickly make adjustments
and saving you the trouble of manually selecting the “invert selection” box every time.

Essential Lightroom Shortcut #15

Double click any setting to reset its value

This isn’t much of a Lightroom Secret, BUT its the most basic and common Lightroom
Shortcuts that wind up saving you the most time! If you’re manually dragging sliders back to
zero, try just double clicking that effect – It will instantly reset the settings without messing
around with sliders.

Lightroom Adjustment Layer Shortcut #16

Add / remove from radial & graduated filters using the

brush feature
The ability to add / remove sections of your radial or graduated filter mask is a relatively secret
& under-utilized Lightroom feature, but can be SUPER handy. Simply make your regular
radial or graduated filter selection, then click the brush icon to add to that selection however
you like. Hold the alt/option key to toggle the eraser and presto, you’ve got a powerful
radial/graduated filter brush combo just like the pros.

That’s it for out 16 Hidden Lightroom Shortcuts & Tricks using Lightroom Adjustment
Layers! Did we miss any?
Let me know which of the 16 do you think is the most helpful in the comments below!

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