I built Darkroom Deck as a Lightroom Classic tool to save photographers time in their editing workflow. I’m a photographer and I shot a wedding earlier this year. After culling all the photos I wanted to edit from my memory cards, I found myself wishing I still had something like VSCO Keys or PFixer to speed things up, so I made my own.
Instead of having to drag your mouse around the screen to adjust different sliders in Lightroom Classic, Darkroom Deck allows you to map them to your keyboard. Adjust exposure, contrast, clarity, tint and the rest of Lightroom’s Develop adjustments by simply tapping (or holding down) keys you’ve mapped.
Max out your keyboard and don’t have any keys left over? You’re able to create layered keyboards where you can seamlessly launch another keyboard to give you more options. You can save those keyboards (decks) for different situations and scenarios too.
And it’s not just for sliders. You can launch brushes (sadly, you will have to use your mouse to work with those) and apply your favorite presets too.
With Darkroom Deck, the keyboard is the hero. I used a different product a few years ago where you could map keys in a similar fashion, but the keyboard wasn’t presented to you in a way that made it easy to see what keys you’d already used and what keys were still available. That’s not the case here. You can easily see what you’ve mapped and what keys remain available.
Darkroom Deck is signed and notarized by Apple so you won’t have to go through the usual macOS routine of trying to convince your computer that it’s safe to open. As far as compatibility goes, it runs on macOS Sonoma 14 and later on both Apple Silicon and Intel-based Macs.
I’m at the cohort stage right now where I’m looking for photographers, especially ones with heavy and demanding workflows, to beat on Darkroom Deck and provide some feedback. I’ve tried to use it as intensely as I can, but we all work in different ways.
If you’re a photographer and are interested in checking it out, sign up for the cohort at www.darkroomdeck.com.
As far as pricing goes, I’m thinking $50 for a one-time purchase. No subscription. That will include maintenance and compatibility updates going forward. Power Keys, which is probably the closest current alternative, is $8 per month or $80 for a yearly subscription, so I think $50 once is fair. I think we’re all a little tired of subscription models, be it monthly or yearly.
Instead of having to drag your mouse around the screen to adjust different sliders in Lightroom Classic, Darkroom Deck allows you to map them to your keyboard. Adjust exposure, contrast, clarity, tint and the rest of Lightroom’s Develop adjustments by simply tapping (or holding down) keys you’ve mapped.
Max out your keyboard and don’t have any keys left over? You’re able to create layered keyboards where you can seamlessly launch another keyboard to give you more options. You can save those keyboards (decks) for different situations and scenarios too.
And it’s not just for sliders. You can launch brushes (sadly, you will have to use your mouse to work with those) and apply your favorite presets too.
With Darkroom Deck, the keyboard is the hero. I used a different product a few years ago where you could map keys in a similar fashion, but the keyboard wasn’t presented to you in a way that made it easy to see what keys you’d already used and what keys were still available. That’s not the case here. You can easily see what you’ve mapped and what keys remain available.
Darkroom Deck is signed and notarized by Apple so you won’t have to go through the usual macOS routine of trying to convince your computer that it’s safe to open. As far as compatibility goes, it runs on macOS Sonoma 14 and later on both Apple Silicon and Intel-based Macs.
I’m at the cohort stage right now where I’m looking for photographers, especially ones with heavy and demanding workflows, to beat on Darkroom Deck and provide some feedback. I’ve tried to use it as intensely as I can, but we all work in different ways.
If you’re a photographer and are interested in checking it out, sign up for the cohort at www.darkroomdeck.com.
As far as pricing goes, I’m thinking $50 for a one-time purchase. No subscription. That will include maintenance and compatibility updates going forward. Power Keys, which is probably the closest current alternative, is $8 per month or $80 for a yearly subscription, so I think $50 once is fair. I think we’re all a little tired of subscription models, be it monthly or yearly.