I’m just guessing this but if you’ve been using just about any Adobe product for a while, such as Photoshop or Lightroom, then you are probably using (or at least know of) a few shortcut keys by now…. right?
Shortcut keys are nice because they can save tons of time when you are working in the digital darkroom, but speed isn’t the only advantage. If you are making a selection and you use a shortcut, your pointer doesn’t move when you toggle between tools! Think about it, this alone could give you much more control when you’re working on your image.
Luckily, over 90% of these shortcuts haven’t changed
in many years so we really don’t have to keep learning new ones over and over
again. Most Photoshop users know that if
you float your mouse over any tool on the toolbar a pop-up box will tell you
the tool’s name and the shortcut command, and if you pull down one of the
drop-down menus, the ones that have shortcuts are listed there also. If you are
a Cloud subscriber you’ve probably noticed that if you hover over a tool on the
toolbar menu these days you not only get the shortcut key but you also get a
little video of the tool in use in a pop-up box! Nice huh?
I’ve been using Photoshop for over 18 years now so
I’ve got most of my most frequently used shortcuts committed to memory, but I
also have a list of other shortcuts I don’t use as frequently printed up and
hanging up close to my PC so I can just glance at them when I need them. This
is also the way I started learning shortcut keys, I printed up a list of the
ones I used most and when I had them memorized I added new ones. Easy right?
A lot of Photoshop users know that you are also able
to reassign Shortcut keys if you’d like. Just go up to Edit drop-down menu and scroll
down to Keyboard Shortcuts or use the shortcut (Shift+ Alt+Cmd+K ). Some of the Shortcut keys that Adobe assigns
are for tools or menu items that most of us will never use, so if I want to add
a shortcut that’s already pre-assigned to a tool or menu item, I can turn off that
shortcut and use it for something else. If you use Photoshop quite a bit,
shortcuts could save you a lot of time in your editing workflow. I’ve included two links below where you can
find more info on Shortcuts. One is from Adobe and one is from Popular Photography magazine. I hope you find this
article helpful.
As always, remember to keep shooting and have some
fun!
