Having Lightroom automatically advance to the next photo after you evaluate your current one with flags, stars and/or color labels (and keeping your hands on the keyboard at all times) can significantly speed up your culling work. Watch my video tutorial below for details on how to use auto advance, or read on below the video.
This content is for Lightroom Classic (AKA Lightroom Classic CC), CC 2015, Lightroom 6 and earlier versions of this Lightroom program that have "Library Develop Map Book Slideshow Print Web" modules listed across the top. It is not for the newer simplified cloud-based Lightroom (AKA Lightroom CC).
For best quality, after hitting Play click on the sprocket wheel in the bottom right and choose 720/HD.
Details on how to use Auto Advance Covered in the Video
To turn on Auto Advance in Lightroom Classic, CC 2015, 6 and earlier versions, either go to Photo>Auto Advance in the menu bar, or hit the Caps Lock key. In Loupe view (E) in the Library module or in Develop (D), when you then assign one piece of information – for example, a pick or reject flag, 1-5 stars, or a color label, Lightroom will automatically advance to the next photo.
Keeping your hands on the keyboard at all times can speed up this work substantially. To do so, use keyboard shortcuts: P = pick flag, X = reject flag, 0-5 = 0-5 stars, 6 = red, 7= yellow, 8 = green, 9 = blue. (There’s no shortcut for purple.)
To assign multiple pieces of information before moving to the next photo, hold down the Shift key as you assign all but the last piece of information. For example, to assign a pick flag, 3 stars and a red label, do Shift-P, Shift-3, 6 (for red). Using the Shift key tells Lightroom to temporarily suspend auto advance. (Hitting Caps Lock would do the same.)
To turn off auto advance, go to Photo>Auto Advance, or hit the Caps Lock key again.
Laura…talk about “just in the nick of time!” I just spent 5 very stressful days migrating my LR 3 files to a new iMac running LR 6. While I stopped using Lightroom over the past year due to an incredibly complicated catalog problem that I just couldn’t summon up the courage to combat until recently I continued shooting images. At present I have the daunting task of uploading around 10-12,000 images into LR 6 and anything that will make the task go more quickly is greatly appreciated! Thanks!
I’m glad you found the tutorial helpful, Winston! You really shouldn’t have to reimport all the photos you had in Lightroom 3, unless your old computer hard drive crashed and you don’t have backup of the LR 3 catalog. LR 6 can upgrade your LR 3 catalog and you’ll be up and running with all your photos in no time. Watch my video tutorial on upgrading to LR 6.
Laura, I think you misunderstood my previous post. The 20,000 + images I referred to aren’t ones I am reimporting they are new images made in the past several months. I’ve been unable to process them due to my not having completed the transition from a no longer operable computer running LR 3 to a replacement computer upon which I installed LR 6. I kept putting this operation off because I knew it was going to be difficult due to problems of my own creation…and it was! Five days of mindnumbing complication sprinkled with occasional nearly irresistable urges to throw the computer out the window! But I managed to save some 70,000 at risk images and get everything up and running again…whew!
Good to hear, Winston!
Why doesn’t lightroom use the up/down arrows for pick/unpick like breezebrowser? So much easier. One hand – left/right/up/down
I like that idea, Mike. You can submit it on Adobe’s bug/feedback site here.
Sorry for my ignorance but is this ‘Culling’ before or after import? If the latter does Reject erase the photo?
Many thanks,
David
Sorry I didn’t mention that, David – it’s after import. Reject just flags the photo, it doesn’t delete it.