(Originally written for a client. Republished with permission)
Quite unsurprisingly, Adobe is renowned as one of the greatest leaders in bringing about high quality, effective software.
Whether it’s graphic designing, photo editing or photo manager software, Adobe leads everywhere.
Needless to say then, the Adobe Lightroom App is another wonder in Adobe’s list of accomplishments. A counterpart to the powerful desktop editing program, it mainly functions like an image categorizing application. And it comes with editing and sharing capabilities too.
Backed by the Adobe Photoshop technology, it lets you create, edit, organize and share images boasting of a highly professional quality.
Even with advanced editing tools, the interface is easy and lucid. This definitely makes it a good pick for beginners. And this is the best part. It is commendable that the Adobe Lightroom App maintains its easy usability even with complex and professional tools.
For iOS devices the installing is free but the sync and cloud features require a subscription to Adobe’s Creative Cloud Photography Plan. A 30 day free trial period is available to avail these features. To avail more features you can sign in using your adobe account. If you don’t have an account on Adobe, you can get an Adobe ID at www.adobe.com
The World of Wonders
If someone has to tell you what the ‘Adobe Lightroom App’ can do in brief, these things will figure for sure!
The magic of Adobe Photoshop enables you to create and share professional quality images.
Powerful editing tools allow you to explore the corners of your imagination (and maybe let it run wild a little too!).
You can experiment as much as you want and still revert back to the original image if you don’t want the changes!
RAW editing technology enables you to import and edit raw photos (you can avail this by subscribing to Adobe’s Creative Cloud Subscription).
Sync your photos across devices (desktop, tablets, phones) and access them from anywhere and everywhere.
The Essential Features and Tools
Create Photo Albums
The app allows you to collect different photos and organise them under one roof.
All you have to do is open the app on your device (android or iOS). Then tap the (+) sign on the top right corner of the screen. Once you’ve selected the photos you want in that album, you can name it and click on OK to create a brand new album.
Add photos
If you want to add existing photos from your device to a collection you’ve created, you can do it quite easily. Just open an existing collection and click on add photos.
It will open the gallery or camera roll where you store your precious photos. Choose the ones you want to add and click add photos again.
Capture a new one!
For lovers of photography out there, you all can capture as many photos you want through the Adobe Lightroom App. Just open a collection and tap the camera icon.
Although the default setting is auto, you can switch to professional to add that extra edge to your photos. Hit the shutter button to capture that amazing click.
Edit away to glory!
Let’s agree - We all love it when it comes to editing photos even though we might not be good at it! But that’s not going to be an issue with users of this brilliant app.
The interface being easy, editing is easy too.
You only have to tap a photo and open it. Once opened, you will see a menu at the bottom of the screen. It gives you various options like Crop, Apply Presets, and rate or flag your photo, and even adjust setting. Choose any.
You’ll find further options to help you fine-tune your editing when you click on each of them. Crop will have different options like 4*3, straighten, rotate etc. while the presets option will open up things like cross process, old polar and so on.
Hit them and experience the magic! Once done, you can click on the cloud icon to sync the changes across devices. The app enables you to easily access what you create!
The new update
For people who are in love with High Dynamic Range images, this is definitely the go-to app.
It lets you capture images in high dynamic ranges or what is popularly called HDR and get the as RAW files. Adobe Lightroom App determines the exposure range of the subject of the photo you plan to capture and employs algorithms to process and produce a RAW image.
Basically this is a file format that doesn’t forego image data which is an important aspect of the image quality.
With formats like JPG, such information is compressed or lost which often dulls the image. But RAW enables better quality images. And Adobe Lightroom App enables images in RAW format quite easily.
On iOS devices, you can export images that you imported through the app, including the RAW images. And with a simple Swipe gesture you can rate and review the app too! On android devices, the linear and radial selection tools are available henceforth.
A couple of drawbacks...
The RAW HDR capture tool, much to our disappointment, comes with a few device restrictions. So for iOS users, you need to own iPhone 7/7 Plus, iPhone 6/6s, iPhone SE to avail the magic of this dynamic tool.
Android users should know that only Google Pixel and Pixel XL and Samsung Galaxy S7/S7 Edge are compatible with this capture tool.
The RAW images consume more time than say a JPG one. Plus, they take more space. Moreover, because of their larger size (unlike your normal JPG format) they might slow down your camera a little.
Also, unlike its desktop version, the app doesn’t allow you to save custom presets. Furthermore, the RAW images can be shared only for people who are subscribed to Adobe’s creative cloud.
This is a little inhibiting but it certainly doesn’t take away the charm of the various things this app can do.
Overall..
The experience with Adobe Lightroom App will definitely be magical.
For beginners, it might take some time to get used to the technicalities. But honestly, there aren’t many. Even if there are, they’re pretty easy to learn and get used to. The filters are fun to work with and so is the interface.
The selective editing option (at the bottom left corner of the bottom menu) might consume some time and effort to grasp. But otherwise, everything’s self-explanatory.
And the pictures you get are wonderful!
They have:
Higher quality
Better Brightness
Adjusted whiteness and exposure
Better detailing
Better color and tones
Better professional quality
And you can use it both ways- Portrait and Landscape mode!
Needless to say, this app is a must-have for users looking for professional photography experience on their mobile phones! So don’t wait any longer and try it out on your Play Store or App Store.