Putting the Focus on Your Photos

Picking the right photo is an art and Lightroom gives you some of the best options for viewing your photos, and making them the star of the show, while the software's interface and panels can kind of "step off stage," if you like. You've got a lot of choices, including some I've never seen in any application before, and I think you'll be surprised at how clever some of them are.

Step One

Press Command-1 to switch to the Library module, then double-click on one of your photo thumbnails. Press the F key twice, so Lightroom takes up the full screen. Now, press the Tab key on your keyboard and you'll notice that the panels on both sides of your photo are tucked away out of sight, putting your photo on center stage. I love this view because the filmstrip is still visible and you can view other photos in this unobstructed view by just clicking on them in the filmstrip (or using the filmstrip shortcuts we learned earlier).

Step Two

If you just want to see your photo, all by itself, without any distractions whatsoever, then press Shift-Tab, which not only hides the panels, but hides the filmstrip at the bottom as well (as shown here).

Step Three

What's nice about this mode is that although your image is center stage, to get to either of the hidden panels on the sides, just move your cursor over to where the panels used to be and they pop right out. In the example shown here, I moved my cursor over to the right side of the screen and the panels pop out from the right side. Move your cursor away (back near the center of the screen) and the panels tuck back out of sight.

Step Four

Now, what if you want the panels to stay open and not pop back out of sight when you move your cursor over to them? Just click directly on the little left-facing arrow that appears on the far right-center of the Panels area (circled in red here) and the arrow flips to the right (as shown) letting you know that the panels on that side are now locked into place. To have them tuck back in again, click the same arrow. You can lock down either the left or right set of panels by clicking on their respective side center arrows.

Step Five

Okay, press the F key and then Shift-Tab to get back to the regular floating window mode. Click on a different photo in the filmstrip (just so we don't get bored looking at the same photo over and over again). Now we'll use one of the out-and-out coolest view features in Lightroom (or in any program for that matter). There are actually really two view modesthe first is called Dim mode. Just press the L key and everything but your photo is dimmed, leaving your photo at full brightness.

Step Six

So, we've dimmed the screenbig deal, right? Well, the big deal part comes in when you find out that although the panels, filmstrip, and controls are all dimmed, they're also still active. Try it while we're in this dimmed modego ahead and click on a different photo in the filmstrip and it appears. Click on a control in one of the panelsopen a panel, close a panel, move a sliderit all works even though it's dimmed. How slick is that? And if that weren't enough, there's yet another mode.

Step Seven

The other mode is called Lights Out, where everything is blacked out (not just dimmed, but blacked out) except for your photo. You get into this mode by pressing the L key again (so normally, to get here you'd press the L key twice). Although you can't see the panels and filmstrip in this mode, you can switch to the next photo in the filmstrip by pressing the Left and Right Arrow keys on your keyboard.

Step Eight

While you can't see any options in Lights Out mode, you still have access to them. Just move your cursor to the top of the screen, and the menu bar pops down and stays there until you move your cursor away. To temporarily access all the panels and filmstrip, move your cursor to the bottom of the screen, and you temporarily enter the regular view mode, so you can see the filmstrip and make selections from it. When you move your cursor back upward, you re-enter Lights Out mode. (Note: This temporary view will only work if your filmstrip is minimized before entering Lights Out mode.) To leave Lights Out mode completely and return to the regular view mode, press the L key again.