Adobe Lightroom Mobile for iPad Arrives, Syncs With Desktop App

Adobe Lightroom Mobile finally hit the Apple iTunes App Store for the iPad to the delight of iPad wielding photographers everywhere. Use it to import photos using the Apple Lightning to SD-card adapter and work with photos to get them ready for a quick look by family, friends or clients. The app syncs any edits to the desktop version of Lightroom saving things like tags, collections and other user ratings.

The app comes free from the app store but requires a subscription to the Adobe Cloud Creative ($50/month) or Adobe Photoshop Photography Program ($10/month). Students and educators can get a discount for only $30/month. Photographers may try out the program for free for 30 days.

Adobe Lightroom Mobile helps users edit images and organize them into collections to share with others. The app works with anything from snapshots taken on an iPhone to large RAW files shot with a professional DSLR camera.

After a photographer uploads the images to the iPad, she can edit them using the familiar tools used on the Mac or Windows versions of Lightroom. Then share the photos online or show them off on the screen of the iPad.

The release makes a photographer’s workflow more convenient. Many photo pros or enthusiasts take their laptops with them on a photo shoot because they don’t like using the apps available in the app store. They add a step to their workflow. They must upload the pictures to the iPad, edit or organize them with an app, and then upload them again to the computer. Things like tagging and collections won’t get saved in Lightroom on their computer in most iPad photo apps. Now, with Lightroom Mobile, all the work done on the iPad will sync with the computer’s version of the program. It’s not wasted. This makes us more productive with fewer steps.

In order to sync photos, a user must create a collection first. Collections will then sync to the computer version when connected.

The Adobe Photoshop blog intimates that this release will improve with the feedback of users. The post announcing the release ends as follows:

Our team is looking forward to hearing your feedback on how you use Lightroom mobile to unlock your photography from the traditional desktop. This is just our first step; as we’ve done with all previous Lightroom releases, we’re looking to our customers to help shape the future.

Let’s hope the future remains bright for mobile photographers using Adobe Lightroom and now Lightroom Mobile.

Remember to upgrade the Windows or Mac versions of Lightroom before using the app to sync. It requires version 5.4.