UPDATE: The shortcut in Lightroom 6 and CC 2015 is just F.
While I know a fair amount about Lightroom, I am always picking up more from my fellow bloggers. Here’s a quick but useful shortcut from Sean McCormack over at Lightroom-Blog.com: To see your image and nothing but your image, type Shift-Ctl-F on the PC, or Shift-Cmd-F on the Mac. This will hide the surrounding panels, menu bars, tool bars and system task bars, and your image will be displayed as close to full-screen-size as possible . While in this view, you can use your left and right arrow keys to scroll to other images. This shortcut works in all modules, and your other module shortcut keys will continue to work, such as 0-5 for stars and P for Pick/X for Reject in the Library module. Hit Shift-Ctl/Cmd-F again to exit this mode.
If you are going to be viewing your images full size on the screen like this, you should set your preferences so that your standard-size image previews are screen-size. Go to Lightroom (Mac) or Edit (PC) > Catalog Settings > File Handling, and set the Standard Preview Size to be as close as possible to the width or your monitor’s resolution. Check your system display properties to find out what this is. (Update: in Lightroom 6 / CC 2015 set it to “Auto” and Lightroom will detect the size of your monitor.)
Shift-Tab also gives you a full screen view and is one less key to press.
Hi John, Shift-tab gets rid of the 4 panels, but it doesn’t get rid of the LR menu bar or system information/task bars. Shift-Ctl/Cmd-F gives you nothing but your image, freeing your eye from all distractions.
If you already have the menu bar hidden then Shift-Ctl/Cmd-F is much worse: first it returns your menu bar, then when you press it again it “goes full screen”. Now when you return your menu bar is once again cluttering up your display.
Cynnes is right about Shift+Tab, if you already have your menu bar hidden then Shift+Tab gives you the same thing as Shift-Ctl/Cmd-F and doesn’t mess with your current settings.
Which is better is conditional on how much configuration you already have.
Thanks for the tip. My 14 month old figured out this shortcut, and I could not figure out how to get lr back to normal.
You’re welcome, Carly!