Introduction to Open Source Keys!
Welcome to Open Source Keys online! OSK is a new workflow system we’ve developed and want to share with the rest of the photography world. Here you’ll find downloads, templates, tips and instructions, and hopefully discussion about how to make this a better and faster system!
What is it and why?
With the release of Lightroom 2.0 many photographers have now changed their processing system to include only this program, and no longer use Photoshop. In our humble opinion, using Lightroom to fully process your images gives you incredible control over the final look of your photographs, while still being fast and efficient. It has basic functions that many people use, but also a myriad of other features that many users might not know about! By learning more about Lightroom, and fully exploring all that it can do, we’ve been able to create a unique and consistent look to our processing that we just love.
This growing use of Lightroom among wedding photographers to process their RAW images has developed a need for an efficient keyboard shortcut system. The problem is that specific and necessary functions aren’t assigned short cuts and thus the full potential for speedy Lightroom processing is limited. Also, even if all those shortcuts were mapped, all the multi-button keyboard shortcuts would slow things down. This is why several third party developers have stepped in to bridge these gaps with specialty keyboards. These keyboards are truly amazing devices that speed up workflow an unbelievable amount. Every serious professional photographer working with RAW images in Lightroom should strongly consider using one. The Open Source Keyboard utilizes the same keyboard commonly used by other third party developers, but with an open source program. A keyboard layout and layout data file (for Mac) can be downloaded below.
Eventually Open Source Keyboard layouts for other essential photography programs will be developed (Photoshop, InDesign). Take a look at the video below for a quick introduction to Open Source Keys, and check back often for new updates and tutorials.
Open Source Keys Introduction from Rob & Lauren on Vimeo.
Keyboard layout download:
This is the layout we currently use with our X-Keys in Lightroom. You can download this JPEG and print it off, and all the labels will fit under your buttons!
Open Source Keyboard Layout
Download the QuicKeys Keyboard Short Cuts for the above Keyboard layout (shortcuts are resolution dependent for 24inch monitors, different sizes to follow!): OSKshortcuts