The present invention discloses a method for preparing optically active carbonyl compound, comprising the following steps: under the catalysis of chiral amine salt and transition metal catalysts, with hydrogen and catalytic amount of dihydropyridine compound as hydrogen source, use α, β-unsaturated aldehydes or α, β-unsaturated troponoid compounds to conduct asymmetric catalytic reaction to obtain the optically active carbonyl compound. This method comes in moderate reaction condition, simple operation, and catalytic amount of dihydropyridine compounds usage, the target product is easy to be separated and purified from the reaction system, and the metal catalyst can be recycled, it is economical.