Our Verdict
Adobe brings touch and gesture navigation to Lightroom Mobile River . Helpful overlays bring in you to the new gestures .
For as many simulacrum editing and organizing apps as we ’ve seen on iOS , none has make out close to rival what you could do on your computer . Until now . Adobe Lightroom , long the gilt banner for desktop digital image work flow , now bring its nub capacity to iOS in a companion app , Lightroom mobile1.0 for iPad ( and presently iPhone ) . In so doing , Adobe successfully reimagines Lightroom for tactual sensation . But as this 1.0 reading display , Lightroom Mobile River has much room to raise , both in features and in resolving first rendering hiccough .
The Lightroom mobile app itself is detached . To use it , you ’ll necessitate the latest translation of Adobe ’s $ 149 Lightroom software , update to version 5.4 to supply support for Lightroom Mobile River . ( Adobe Creative Cloud users also have access to Lightroom . )
Getting start with Lightroom mobile is dewy-eyed enough . I downloaded the app from Apple ’s App store , and signed in using my Creative Cloud account . Meanwhile , on my laptop , I update Lightroom to 5.4 , then comply the prompt at the upper left to get started with Lightroom mobile . Tap the pointer , and it reveals a pop out - up menu for bless in . Pay faithful care to this area , since when you ’re signed in , your Creative Cloud business relationship name appears at the top ; this will be your only cue that you ’re sign in , as you ’ll get no warning when you ’ve been signed out by the system .
How it works
Adobe uses the cloud as the mediator to transfer image between Lightroom on the desktop and Lightroom Mobile River . Lightroom mobile is its own self - take environment for syncing images from your Lightroom catalog with your iPad . you’re able to also edit images imported from your photographic camera paradiddle , and send them back to your background .
This process does n’t use Adobe ’s originative Cloud , but rather a disjoined Lightroom swarm substructure that enables you to sync as many images as you desire without impacting your 20 GB of originative Cloud computer storage . Adobe says there ’s a raw limit point , though , based on the iPad ’s maximal available store : A 128 GB iPad can halt up to 60,000 images , according to Adobe . You ’ll postulate to first add your image to a assembling on your background Lightroom ; then , click a tiny Sync clitoris to the left of the ingathering ’s name to transport that collection to your iPad .
figure collections are shown in a erect scroll , with the most of late changed collection on top .
Editing and organizing magic
The magic that is Lightroom Mobile River is that you could edit your collections on the fly , and changes will be seeable back on your screen background once you sync again ( or in near real - time if you ’re plug in ) . aggregation appear stack on top of each other , with the most latterly changed one at top . Tap on the three dots in the lower right-hand corner to discover available action for that assembling : Add range to it from your camera roll manually or automatically , enable offline redaction , rename collecting , or remove collecting . you could also add new solicitation on the twist , be it for import range of a function from the camera roll or for regroup figure from existing collections .
Lightroom mobile furnish useful image selective information , such as shutter speed , aperture , and ISO , at a glance .
go into a assemblage , and you ’ll see range of a function thumbnail crammed side - by - side on the display . tapdance any epitome to watch it ; tap again to bring up canonical epitome information , the histogram , and the navigation chrome , with its four piloting buttons at bottom and its upload and share push at top right hand . One of these clit brings up a filmstrip view of all images , so you do n’t have to go back a projection screen to find another image ; the next two running through the gamut of adjustable command ; and the final one provides cropping and image gyration .
I really wish the overall presentation and mathematical operation of Lightroom mobile . I found it mostly effective and finger friendly . As I scanned through my images , I appreciated that I could see , at a glance , the shutter speed , aperture , ISO , and resolution of an image at a glance . I also appreciate the smooth , sense of touch interface ; the sense of touch and the gesture made selecting , editing , cropping , and sharing images a breeze . For model , tap and give an image , then designate a valuation by a simple finger flick to reject , unflag , or pick an image . The touch interface is a good start , and hopefully we ’ll see some of this hybrid over to the PC version shortly , give the preponderance of touch on Windows 8.x tablets and laptop .
The redaction engine covers all of the ingredient in the Basic panel of the Lightroom Develop mental faculty . There are two edit menus , accessible via the pilotage chrome beneath an simulacrum . One handles tone , color , and picture ; another upshot and filter . Both menus bid editing options in a horizontal scrollbar ; then , beg on a pick to call up a touch - well-disposed slider adjustment . Once you ’ve edit an image , you could output the epitome to Twitter or Facebook , or send it via email .
Lightroom mobile stool it easy to crop and straighten out figure for a variety of predetermined vista ratio .
As much as I could do in Lightroom mobile — and do more well than on Lightroom on my laptop — I found myself need more . Yes , it was A-one - easy to make tweaks , but sometimes I wish well I could well enter a starting value rather of drag my finger along the slider . I also wanted a way to add up a impost craw and output resolution , which would be utile for images destine for function on the Web . I also wanted a more well approachable way to hold my modification from a previous image to the current one . ( mightily now you have to tap on one of the two edits menus , then scroll to the far ripe , far more gesture than should be required for a unsubdivided operation that you ’d require to initiate before attempting extra edits to further tweak the configurations for a give image . )
What ’s distinctly missing from Lightroom Mobile River is the Detail module , which allowed adjustments such as sharpening , lens correction , and dissonance reduction . The app lacks bend and histogram adaptation , as well .
Real-world syncing
Sadly , even experienced Lightroom user will come up the syncing interface very much a unaccented link in Lightroom mobile . In my use of Lightroom in a diverseness of real - man environments , with alter speed and types of Internet connection , I encountered several issues with Lightroom mobile .
I discussed my experience at length with Adobe , but as of this piece of writing Adobe had not identified what cause the problem . My educated suspicion is that Lightroom mobile had difficulty voyage inconsistent or interrupted Internet connection , such as those that I experience at a hotel , and at a sporting locus .
Another letdown : Images are n’t automatically usable for viewing offline . This requires an extra stride , for each record album , and then requires you waitress for the figure to download . I ’d have favor to see it as part of the initial sync , just so it was part of the sync itself , not anything else .
In rescript to view collections offline , you ’ll postulate to manually enable offline editing . Lightroom kindly warn you how much place it will require on the iPad for a given collection .
When you do redeem a assembling to the iPad , you ’re not save the original RAW , JPEG , or TIFF file , but rather Adobe ’s Smart Preview version . If you photograph RAW , Lightroom ’s Smart Previews reduces resolution to 2560 pixels on the foresighted edge , and the Indian file size to 95 to 97 percent of the original ikon ( to 1 MB to 2 MB ) . JPEG image get boil down to 80 to 85 percent of their original size of it ( to about 1.5 megabit ) .
Bottom line
It ’s gruelling to find an app these days that shakes up the status quo , but Lightroom Mobile River attain just that for digital tomography on the iPad . It ’s the first app that makes me find the iPad can be a serious , useful companion in the image redaction and selection process . That suppose , the syncing issues I experienced were very frustrating , some interface choices confound , and many features just do n’t go far enough to satisfy . Still , in spite of its limitations and flaws , Lightroom mobile is the newfangled must - have app for photographers and photo enthusiasts alike .
