Edit Lightroom with a knob, not a mouse.

Grab a $15 USB volume wheel and turn it into a dedicated Lightroom Classic controller. Spin to pick a develop setting — Exposure, Highlights, Shadows, Temperature, and a dozen more — click, then spin again to dial it in. No more hunting for tiny sliders with a mouse, no more nudging a trackpad by a pixel at a time.

  • 🎛️ Spin to select, click to adjust — a simple two-mode workflow that stays out of your way
  • ⚡ Feels natural — rotate faster for bigger jumps, slower for fine control
  • 🖥️ On-screen feedback — Lightroom shows you exactly what you’re adjusting as you turn the dial
  • 🧰 13 develop parameters out of the box — Exposure, Highlights, Shadows, Whites, Blacks, Temperature, Tint, Contrast, Clarity, Vibrance, Saturation, Texture, Dehaze
  • 🤖 100% Vibe Coded

Download

⬇ Download LRWheelie 0.1.0 for Mac

Requires macOS 11+, Lightroom Classic, and Python 3.10+. Tested with the AIMOS/iWit USB volume wheel — most similar USB volume-control wheels should work too.

Quick install

  1. Open the DMG and drag the LRWheelie folder into Applications
  2. Add the plugin to Lightroom — File > Plug-in Manager > Add, then select plugin/lrwheelie.lrplugin from inside the folder
  3. Double-click LRWheelie.app — first launch sets itself up automatically (~30 seconds), then walks you through a one-time calibration of your wheel
  4. Turn the dial — with Lightroom open, you’re ready to go

Full details and troubleshooting are in the README included with the download.

Free, and still growing

LRWheelie is free and open. It’s also very much a work in progress — built by one photographer scratching their own itch, tested on one desk, one wheel, one Mac. It works well for that setup; your mileage may vary, and that’s exactly what I want to hear about.

If you try it, please send feedback — what worked, what didn’t, what you wish it did — to lrwheelie@markjhandel.com. Bug reports, feature ideas, and “this is dumb, but here’s why” are all welcome.