You probably already know this, but Lightroom has many shortcuts that I haven’t listed here. If you know them all, you’ll save even more time. There’s a really easy way to see what they are for any given module you might be in: Press Cmnd/Ctrl + /. You’ll see a superimposed panel that looks something like this:

Here are the shortcuts that I personally can't live without:

C: Compare. This works in the Library mode to show what selected shots look like side-by-side. It’s most effective if you also use Shift Tab to toggle all the panels on and off so you get the biggest images.

N: Survey: Lets you compare multiple images. Shift + Tab is even more slick here because you’ll want to see as large a preview as you can when you’re previewing three or more images. Of course, if you try to preview too many, you’re right back to Grid mode.

D: Develop. This is especially useful when you’re in the Library mode and want to adjust an image so that it looks better with the whole collection. Also great for shifting between Develop/Compare or Develop/Survey (see shortcuts above) so that you can quickly make the selected images look their individual best when shown together.

G: Grid. The beauty of this is that you can use the shortcut when in Develop mode to take you right back to being able to manage images.

I: Info. Press once to show filename, date, time, and size. Press again to show shutter speed, f-stop and focal length. ISO, Camera brand, lens will also appear if the camera records it.

L: Lights dim, Lights out, Lights on toggle. This one’s really great for isolating the image from distractions…especially if you’re showing the images to someone else who doesn’t care about the technicalities…like the client. Works in both Library and Develop modules. In Develop, it’s a great help when fine-tuning settings.

P: Turns a Pick Flag on to help you make selections in a hurry. Great way to dump everything you don’t want at once.

U: Turns the pick flag off. Great when you no longer want the current picks to apply. Just Select All then press U.

X: Reject Flag. Flags any image you want to reject so that you can delete or export them all at once…or remove them from a collection.

R: Crop. Takes you right to the Develop mode and shows the current crop. All you have to do to change it is move the handles, re-position the crop by dragging inside it, or rotate the crop by dragging outside it. Very handy when you’re putting a collection together.

T: Toggle the toolbar. Sometimes you need that extra little bit of space.

W: Toggles the White balance dropper. This can be really handy when you’re putting together a group of images in Library mode and realize that you could easily set proper white balance by clicking any neutral part of the image. You’re immediately taken to Develop mode, so you could also make some other adjustments while there, then just jump back to Library by pressing G.

Tab: Toggles Side panels on/off.

Shift + Tab: Toggles all panels

Ctrl + [: Rotate left

Ctrl + ]: Rotate right

0-5: Number of rating starts assigned to selected image

6-9: Colors

Opt/Alt: Shows the areas affected when pressed while using the Sharpen and Noise sliders

Cmnd/Ctrl: In Library or Filmstrip...Lets you continue to Select/Deselect non-contiguous images

Cmnd/Ctrl + /: To see other possibilities for hot keys. Shows the entire list of hot keys for the module you’re in.

Cmnd/Ctrl + Shift + T: Switches to the Target icon so that you can make a regional contrast adjustment