How to Use Lightroom in 10 Minutes

contact cindy v-2

If you’re a newbie to Lightroom, don’t get overwhelmed. Here is an easy 10-minute start to Lightroom.

Keep it simple

Lightroom is one of those pieces of software in which you only need to know how to use 10% of it for 90% of the functions.

Lightroom Hotkeys

To start, I recommend using hotkeys. It will save you a lot of time down the line. Here are the hotkeys:

  • Shift + Tab : Collapse all side windows
  • F: Full screen
  • G: Gallery/Grid View (whatever you want to remember by)
  • E: Enlarge
  • D: Develop
  • L: Turn off the “Lights”
  • Command (or Ctrl) + [ ] : Rotate the image Left or Right

There are a lot more hotkeys, if you want to see them all while you have Lightroom open, press Command (or Ctrl) + ?. Or Google: “Lightroom Hotkeys.”

My Lightroom workflow

This is my basic Lightroom workflow:

  1. Insert SD Card
  2. Click ‘Import’
  3. Apply Eric Kim Preset upon import (Eric Kim 1600 Monochrome)
  4. Press Shift+Tab to collapse side columns
  5. Press “L” twice (to turn off the lights)
  6. Scroll through images with trackpad to look for favorite photos
  7. Press “P” to Pick my favorite photos
  8. In the bottom-right corner, turn Filter into “Flagged”
  9. Press “D” to Develop the photo, and make basic edits
  10. Press “G” to go back to the Gallery view
  11. Press “Export” button in bottom-left corner
  12. Choose folder to extract image, and make JPEG 80%.
  13. Find JPEG image, and upload to social media/website/etc.

How do I know what my best photos are?

contact cindy v-2

Learn how to choose your best photos:

1-hour Lightroom Tutorial

More posts