Don't Sleep On These 5 Lightroom Hidden Features

I've had the good fortune to work at some truly amazing software companies throughout my career. Before entering the world of photography in 2008, I worked for a financial software company, where I first learned the importance of effective app design. I'd often meet with clients and discuss their needs and how our software could fulfill them. I'd then take that data and work with the software developers to not only implement these improvements (assuming it was feasible), but also to ensure that it was done in an easy-to-understand way.

Photo editing apps are no different than financial apps in that regard. A company like Adobe wants to release an app to help photographers manage, edit, and share their photos. As you can imagine, A LOT of tools need to be built and integrated within the app. But, more importantly, the app has to be easy to use and not overwhelm the user with an onslaught of tools.

This is when product managers, user experience researchers, and developers come together. As they collaborate, they try to strike a fine balance between presenting an intuitive user interface and making less critical tools or alternate tools discoverable. And this discoverability, or lack thereof as is often the case, is exactly why I created this video. Incidentally, it's also why I created Lightroom Everywhere, the only course you'll ever need if you want to learn everything there is to know about Lightroom Desktop and Mobile.

The fact is that Lightroom has A TON of great tools that are hidden (read: not very discoverable), and many of them are very helpful. They can also significantly improve your experience using the app. So, check out these five hidden Lightroom tricks to make the most out of Lightroom.

When you're done with that video, be sure to check out the first part of this series, where I share seven more secret Lightroom Desktop tips, and this article, where I share 10 hidden Lightroom Mobile tricks!