Adobe Lightroom is one of the go-to apps used by professional and enthusiast photographers, and has long since been the backbone of photo editing workflow on desktops. They then launched a mobile app which became free in December last year, enabling both iOS and Android users to use those powerful, non-destructive image editing features on mobile devices.
The app has just received a new update that has taken its capabilities up several notches. There are separate versions announced for the two mobile platforms--Lightroom for iOS 2.4 (for iPhone and another variant optimized for iPad) and for Lightroom for Android 2.1.
Lightroom for iOS 2.4
There are two key updates here, the first being support for RAW images. Using your iPhone or iPad, you can now open RAW images from your DSLR right on your mobile device, edit them, then save the finished product to JPEG or directly share them to several social media destinations.
Just like the desktop app, mobile users can now finely adjust image properties such as white balance, shadows and highlights, and all of these edits done locally on the device get seamlessly synchronized to all other connected instances to your Adobe account when it is connected to the Internet. The RAW formats from numerous cameras are supported in the mobile app--the same as those supported in the desktop version.
The second feature addition is the ability to apply image edits to precise areas of the photo--local adjustments. There is a linear selection tool that can do things like change the saturation of a sunset sky, and a radial version of the tool that can be used to apply creative effects to circular features such as flowers and even portraits.
Lightroom for Android 2.1
The Android update now brings a Pro mode that opens up your mobile device camera’s capabilities, with the ability to manually adjust shutter speed, ISO, white balance and even focus. The app even places a new Lightroom Camera widget on the home screen for quicker access.
