What is the keyboard shortcut for brightness on a Mac?

Press F1 to dim and F2 to brighten, the two sun-icon keys at the top-left of your Mac keyboard. On older MacBooks with a Touch Bar, there are no F1/F2 keys; tap the brightness slider in the Control Strip instead. Want finer control? Hold Option and Shift while you press F1 or F2 and brightness moves in quarter steps. Same keys do everything, nothing to learn. One note: on a MacBook Pro 14"/16" or Pro Display XDR, F2 stops at the everyday cap macOS sets. That's roughly half the panel's ~1,600-nit ceiling. An app like MacBrightness opens the rest on these same keys.