Today’s Question: Is there a way to add the image rotation buttons to the toolbar in the Develop module in Lightroom Classic? I don’t understand why the buttons for rotating photos in 90-degree increments are only available in the Library module.
Tim’s Quick Answer: While you can’t add the rotation buttons to the toolbar in the Develop module, you can use menu commands or keyboard shortcuts to rotate a photo in 90-degree increments while in the Develop module.
More Detail: I too have always found it a little odd that the buttons for rotating a photo in 90-degree increments are available on the toolbar in the Library module but not in the Develop module. Fortunately, there are still options you can rotate the current image while working in the Develop module.
To begin with, you can use a keyboard shortcut to rotate the current image in the Develop module or the Library module. Hold the Ctrl key on Windows or the Command key on Macintosh, and then press the left square bracket key ([) to rotate counterclockwise and the right square bracket key (]) to rotate clockwise.
You can also use menu commands. From the menu bar you can choose Photo > Rotate Left or Photo > Rotate Right. Another option is to right-click on the image. If you right-click on the main preview image in the Develop module you can choose Transform > Rotate Left or Transform > Rotate Right from the popup menu. If you right-click on a thumbnail on the filmstrip you can simply choose Rotate Left or Rotate Right from the popup menu.
While the toolbar below the image preview area in the Develop module can be customized by choosing which items to include or exclude, unfortunately the image rotation buttons are not among the available options for the toolbar when working in the Develop module.
