Stumbled upon a time saving feature in LR3 and thought I would share, Solo Mode.

Ryan L · May 21, 2011

I have been using LR3 for about a year now and never noticed this before. Actualy I think I have seen it, but never payed it much attention.

When in development mode, you have all the panels on the right, Basic, Tone Curve, HSL/Color/B&W, Split Toning, Lens Correction etc... I usually have them all open and scroll up and down, and up and down, and up and down. It is kinda irritating. If you right click in that panel (LR3 in PC) you can click "solo mode". This makes it so that only one panel is open at a time and when you click another panel it opens and the other closes!

I am sure some already knew of this, but it makes workflow so much easier, not that LR3 didnt already improve workflow. Hmm, wonder how many other undiscovered things Lr has that I havent found out yet!

KmH · May 22, 2011

Do you know how to invoke 'clipping mode' when using the Exposure and Blacks sliders?

Ryan L · May 22, 2011

Assuming you are talking about on the histogram, yes although I usually only leave it on "mouse over" on the black indicators.

KmH · May 22, 2011

No, I'm not talking about on the histogram, which is why I said "....when using the Exposure and Blacks sliders?."

At any rate, you invoke clipping mode for those sliders by holding down the Alt key when the cursor is on the slider.

You can also hold down the Alt key when using the Sharpening panel and adjusting the Radius, Detail, and Masking sliders.

The above also works in Photoshop Camera Raw since it and Lightroom are virtually the same edit rendering engine.

FattyMcJ · May 22, 2011

OP, excellent find! More of a "preference" kind of thing, but I'm sure, like you, others will enjoy this feature.

KmH said:
No, I'm not talking about on the histogram, which is why I said "....when using the Exposure and Blacks sliders?."

At any rate, you invoke clipping mode for those sliders by holding down the Alt key when the cursor is on the slider.

You can also hold down the Alt key when using the Sharpening panel and adjusting the Radius, Detail, and Masking sliders.

The above also works in Photoshop Camera Raw since it and Lightroom are virtually the same edit rendering engine.

See there, ya learn something new every day. Didn't know "Alt/Option" worked for blacks/exposure sliders as well. I'd been using it for sharpening, but this will be handy indeed!