Customizing keyboard shortcuts in Photoshop

I learned very quickly to use the keyboard shortcuts available inPhotoshop. They save me tons of time and trouble.

However, some of the things I use most often don’t have a shortcut.

One of my favorite tools inPhotoshopis Exposure.
When I go to Image, Adjustments then Exposure, I can see in the menu that there’s not a provided shortcut I can use. (shortcuts are displayed in File Menus to the right of a menu item)

Why is there no shortcut for the thing I use the most? Well there’s a fix for that. You can edit and create your own keyboard shortcuts inPhotoshop. Here’s how.

Go to Edit, Keyboard Shortcuts and you’ll see the following menu.

Photoshop gives us three different types, or categories, of keyboard shortcuts that we can create. All of the menu items will be found here. I’ll find Exposure under the Application Menus, under Image Adjustment.Scroll down until you see the feature you want to create a shortcut to.

I can simply type in the keyboard shortcut I want to use to access it. Now, one of the problems you'll undoubtedly run into when customizing your own shortcuts in Photoshop is that Adobe has already used up many of the key combinations you'll want to use.

For example, F1 is currently being used for undo. (Photoshop gives me a warning when I use the F1 key here) I’m used to using command/control Z to undo so F1 would be a good spot for my exposure command.

I'm quite willing to reassign F1 to the Exposure tool which I use all the time, so I'll simply click theAcceptbutton on the top right of the scroll window to accept this change.

I can now see in the original window that opened thatPhotoshophas created a new keyboard shortcut file calledPhotoshopDefaults (modified).If I want, I can change the name to something like "My Shortcuts" and click the Save button. This is really handy if more than 1 person is using the computer!