Lightroom Mobile Settings: Hereโs How To Use The Mobile App
There is a lot of confusion around the different versions of Lightroom – especially when it comes to Lightroom Classic desktop settings vs Lightroom Mobile settings.
For starters, I think it’s important to note that all versions come with your Lightroom Photography subscription (and you can get a 7-day free trial here), so you can actually try them out and see what you prefer, but the main difference is this: there is Lightroom Classic and Lightroom CC. (I actually wrote an entire post explaining the difference between Lightroom CC vs Lightroom Classic!) In short, Classic is your full professional editing software, and CC is a “light” version.
So where does Lightroom Mobile settings fit in all of this? Lightroom Mobile basically operates identically to Lightroom CC. This is easy to remember since CC stands for Creative Cloud, and the images and edits you do live “on the cloud”, and therefore links directly to your mobile.
I am very passionate about Lightroom Classic, and for anyone who takes photo editing seriously, I will always recommend it. However, I know a lot of people like to edit on the go, and even want to edit their phone photos in a more professional way. So for all of you wanting to get a better grasp of Lightroom mobile settings, this post is for you.
Lightroom Classic Desktop settings & Lightroom Mobile settings
The main difference
Lightroom mobile works on your phone exclusively, this is why the app mostly focuses on editing and not on organization. Just like on Lightroom CC, you have some basic album and starring system features, but it won’t directly reflect back to your photo storage, so this is just for keeping organized within the app. The mobile version of Lightroom is meant to be an editing tool. If you want to organize, store, and cull images, I suggest you stick to Lightroom Classic.
Now, for those wanting to work exclusively on iPhone photos, and want to sometimes edit on the computer, then Lightroom Mobile and Lightroom CC are your best bet, as they seamlessly sync and work together.
The similarities
The good news is: If you know how to edit on Lightroom Classic, then you know how to edit on Lightroom CC and Lightroom Mobile. Although the layout is a bit different, all of the tools you need to create can be found on both light and mobile versions of the software.
I wanted to create this simple guide, to help you find your way around the mobile app. I recommend opening your Lightroom Mobile as you follow along with this guide. I also created a few videos to show you how the settings work.
Importing your image on Lightroom Mobile
Getting your photo into the app
To edit your images you first have to bring it into Lightroom Mobile. When you open the app, click on the blue button (left) to add a photo from your roll. A menu will pop up, select “from camera roll” and add it to your Lightroom.
Main menu
Let’s get you familiar with the layout of the app
Once you open your image, at the bottom of the frame you will find all your menu options that open up the Lightroom Mobile settings for editing. The names vary a little bit from the system on Lightroom Classic, but as you scroll through, you should be able to find the setting you are looking for. As you click each menu, a sub-menu will pop up, giving you all the same tools you can find on your desktop.
Sub-menu: Light
Here you will find the most basic settings, and tone curves
Under the “Light” menu, you will find all your basic settings that affect the exposure and tone of the image. Basically, all “basic” settings you see on Lightroom Classic except the ones that affect colour and the settings under “presence”. Your tone curve is also found inside this menu.
Color/hsl
Color adjustments / HSL
To access the color/hsl panel, under the color menu, click the top right corner where it says mix. Once in the color mix, you can select each color and modify its hue, saturation, and luminance. Alternatively, if you click on the selector and hover over the image, select the color you want to modify by clicking on it, and dragging up and down to change the settings.
Effects
Texture, clarity, dehase, vignette, and grain
Under the effects menu we find the remaining basic settings of texture, clarity and dehaze (labeled under presence on Lightroom Classic). Below the presence settings we also find the effects settings from the desktop version: vignette (with it’s corresponding midpoint, feather, roundness and highlight) and grain (with size and roughness).
Under the effects menu, on the top right corner you can find your access to the split toning settings. On mobile, instead of having a slider for the color, and another for it’s saturation, you adjust the intensity of the color by dragging the point up and down. The closer you are to the bottom, the less intensity the tone displays. The closer to the top, the more color saturation.
At the bottom of the highlights and shadow selectors, you will find your balance setting to adjust the mid-point between them.
Details, Optics, Geometry
Although named slightly differently, these three settings follow the same structure as the classic version. Under detail you will find sharpening and noise reduction, while optics coincides with lens correcrtion, and geometry with transform. Unfortunately these settings are more limited compared to the full desktop version, but there are still a lot of things you can do.
Presets
Loading presets and saving presets
Although you will need a different set of presets to work on mobile vs desktop version of Lightroom, they work in a similar way. Your mobile app will come with some presets, but you can always purchase a set, or create your own. To create a preset from your current settings, tap on the top right corner the button with the three dots, and select “create preset”. This menu also allows you to copy settings and paste into another photo, as well as organize your photos, and see your histogram.
Settings
Copy from previous, versions, and reset settings
Previous allows you to copy the editing from the last photo you worked on with just one click. Reset will revert your image to its original settings, providing few different options in between. Lastly, versions allow you to create “virtual copies” of your image so you can save different edits of the same photo without having lost them in the process.
Selective Tools
Brush, gradient, and radial tools
These are the tools that on Lightroom Classic you find on top of your basic settings, and below your histogram (the last three on the right). Under selective you will find your brush, gradient and radial tool. They work the same as your desktop version, except they are all in the same menu. Click on the plus sign, and choose which of the three you want to use. To select size, feather and flow, click on each option and drag up and down. Once that is done, you can select your effect and apply on.
Cropping
Locked or free aspect ratios, straighten horizons, and rotation flip
You will find all the same crop tools as your desktop version of Lightroom. You can lock your aspect ratio, or adjust it freely, and you can choose it from a drop-down menu, As an added bonus, here you will also find two tools that are usually in the library module of Lightroom Classic: Rotate and flip.
Exporting
Final step on your editing
Just like any other Lightroom version, you won’t see any of your edits on your original file, you have to export the picture. To export your photo, head to the top right corner and click the export button. Because you are working on Lightroom CC you can get a link to your image on your cloud, and share it with others. To simply export, you can click either “export to camera roll”, or “export as” if you want to adjust size and settings, or even add a watermark.
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