keyboard shortcut to deselect multiple photos and return to previous 1 image selection?

[cookiecutter]

Lightroom Version Number

8.3.1

Operating System

1. Windows 10

For instance, there are 10 images in the folder and you are editing image 5. Subsequently, you select images 5,7,9 to sync settings.

How do you use Keyboard shortcuts to deselect 5,7,9 and go back to 5, or even image 6 to continue editing?

making a script to automate this, hence keyboard shortcuts will be highly preferred.

 

[Conrad Chavez]

There's an indirect way. It's based on the notion of there being an active ("most selected") image when more than one image is selected, and then using the shortcut for the Select Only Active Photo command. When multiple images are selected, the active image is the one with the lightest selection highlight.

In your example, if image 5 is already the active photo, it's easy: Just press the keyboard shortcut for Edit > Select Only Active Photo, which is Command+Shift+D (Mac) or Ctrl+Shift+D (Windows). All images become deselected except 5. If image 5 is not the active photo, press the left arrow or right arrow key until image 5 is the active photo. (Do not press the up arrow or down arrow key or you'll lose the selection.)

Below is a demonstration of using the left arrow/right arrow keys to change the active photo, then pressing the shortcut. It starts with four images in a discontigous selection.