P: Restore color labels and flags in Develop toolbar

Title: Restore direct Flag and Color Label assignment in the Develop module toolbar

For many years, Lightroom Classic allowed photographers to assign flags and color labels while working in the Develop module. This made perfect sense in a real-world editing workflow.

A typical workflow is:

1. Cull and make an initial selection in the Library module.

2. Edit the selected images in the Develop module.

3. After finishing the edit, immediately decide whether the image should be promoted (for example, from Yellow to Green) or receive a Pick flag.

Today, the toolbar icons in the Develop module act as filmstrip filters instead of assigning flags or color labels. Because the icons look almost identical to the original controls, it is easy to activate a filter by mistake. In many cases the current photo disappears from the filmstrip because it no longer matches the selected filter.

Filtering the filmstrip while editing is rarely part of an efficient workflow, whereas assigning flags and color labels immediately after evaluating the finished edit is something many photographers do hundreds of times during a session.

Suggested solution

Please restore the previous behaviour, or make it optional in Preferences:

• Option 1: Toolbar icons assign Flags and Color Labels (legacy behaviour).

• Option 2: Toolbar icons filter the filmstrip (current behaviour).

Allowing users to choose would preserve existing workflows while maintaining compatibility with those who prefer the current implementation.

This small change would remove unnecessary interruptions and significantly improve the editing workflow for photographers working with large numbers of images.