Ladislav Soukup Today, Adobe officially released Lightroom mobile for iPad (minimum iPad 2nd generation) to the world. The app is free, but requires an active Creative Cloud subscription and Lightroom 5.4 for desktop.
Lightroom mobile is an add-on for the desktop version of the popular photo manager and editor. Just sign in with your Adobe account to both apps and turn on sync. Fortunately, this is a selective sync, so you can only send selected collections to the iPad. Lightroom users probably already have an idea. You can only synchronize collections and not any folders from the library, but this does not matter in practice - just drag the folder to the collections and wait for the data to be uploaded to Creative Cloud. Synchronization is turned on using the "checkmark" to the left of the name of individual collections.
The photos are usually huge and it would not be very practical to have 10 GB from the last photo shoot synced to the iPad via the cloud. Fortunately, Adobe thought of that, and that's why the source photos are not directly uploaded to the cloud and then to the iPad, but so-called "Smart Previews". This is a preview photo of sufficient quality that can be edited directly in Lightroom. All changes stick to the photo as metadata, and edits made on the iPad (both online and offline) sync back to the desktop version at the first opportunity and are immediately applied to the source image. After all, this was one of the big news for Lightroom 5, which made it possible to edit photos on a disconnected external drive.
If you already use Smart Previews, uploading selected collections to the cloud is a matter of moments (depending on your connection speed). If you're not using one, be aware that creating the preview images will take some time and CPU power. Lightroom will generate Smart Previews itself immediately after turning on synchronization of a specific collection.
The mobile version instantly downloads the currently synced collections and you're good to go. Everything happens online, so the app won't take up much space. For more convenient work even without data, you can also download individual collections offline. A nice feature is the option to choose an opening photo. By clicking with two fingers, you switch the displayed metadata, where, among other things, you can also find the occupied space on your iPad. The resource collection, which contains 37 photos with a total size of 670 MB, takes up 7 MB on iPad and 57 MB offline.
Functionally, the mobile version allows you to edit all basic values: color temperature, exposure, contrast, brightness in dark and light parts, color saturation, and clarity and vibrance values. However, more detailed color adjustments are unfortunately solved only in the form of preset options. There are relatively enough of them, including several black and white settings, sharpening and the popular vignetting, but a more advanced user would probably prefer direct adjustments.
A powerful way to select photos on the iPad. This is useful for example at a meeting with a client, when you can easily select "the right" photos and tag them. But what I miss is the ability to add color tags and star ratings. There is also no support for keywords and other metadata including location. In the current version, Lightroom mobile is limited to the "pick" and "reject" labels. But I have to admit that labeling is solved with a nice gesture. Just drag your finger up or down on the photo. Gestures in general are nice, there aren't many of them and the introductory guide will teach you them quickly.
You can also create a collection on the iPad and upload photos to it directly from the device. For example, you can take a reference photo and it will be immediately downloaded to your Lightroom catalog on your desktop. This will be useful for mobile photographers with the release of the planned iPhone version (later this year). You can move and copy photos between collections. Of course, sharing on social networks and by email is also possible.
The mobile version was successful. It's not perfect, but it's fast and handles well. It should be taken as a helper for the desktop version. The app is free, but it only works when you sign in to an Adobe account with an active Creative Cloud subscription. So the cheapest version costs $10 per month. In Czech conditions, the subscription will cost you approximately 12 euros (due to the conversion of 1 dollar = 1 euro and VAT). For this price, you get Photoshop CC and Lightroom CC, including 20 GB of free space for your files. I haven't been able to find out anywhere about the storage for synced photos, but they don't seem to count against the quota for files stored on Creative Cloud (I'm syncing about 1GB now and there's no loss of space on CC).
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It should be mentioned that the appearance and controls are completely redesigned for the iPad and need to be learned. Fortunately, it only takes a few minutes to get you started. Worse, the Adobe programmers obviously haven't had time to integrate everything yet, and it will probably take a while. I'm not saying the app is unfinished. It can only be seen that not all options are integrated yet. Metadata work is completely missing, and photo filtering is limited to "picked" and "rejected". The greatest strength of Lightroom is precisely in the organization of photos, and this is completely lacking in the mobile version.
I can recommend Lightroom mobile to all photographers with a Creative Cloud subscription. It is a useful helper that is free for you. Others are out of luck. If this app should be the only reason to switch from the boxed version of Lightroom to Creative Cloud, feel free to wait a little longer.
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They messed it up with that subscription. there are a lot of people who don't need Photoshop (for me, old photoshop Elements is enough) and have bought their own version of Lightroom. I don't need cloud space. So paying 12 euros a month just for syncing with an iPad is totally crazy.
And here it is again. Again, money per month. So again only for professionals. Microsoft took a cue from Adobe and it's rubbish. I wonder when the time will come when these big software companies will run out of ordinary customers.
Only with a subscription it's nothing, maybe if the subscription was lower, but 12 euros per month is a lot for me. I have bought Lightroom and for the rest I also need the purchased PS CS3. So it's a shame, although the application is fast and I like the look and function, I'll have to stick with the alternative Photosmith.
Only a masochist would seriously edit photos on an iPad. I wonder how it is with the option of calibrating the display, otherwise it makes no sense at all, especially when the ipad has "beautiful" saturated colors and the white point is off. Otherwise, the purpose of the application can be seen on the video - presentations to the client and editing by eye on the iPad and then completed on the desktop.