It's Now Easier To Edit Photos With Lightroom Mobile

The Lightroom app for iPhones has had an update and with it comes new features and an improved user interface that makes it easier to edit photos. Plus, Adobe Camera RAW, Lightroom for Android and Lightroom CC have also been updated to bring bug fixes and support for all of the latest cameras and lenses. 

With Lightroom mobile 2.6 it's got easier to find and use tools as the Adobe team have organised similar tools into categories. It's also now easier to edit with one hand as you can see the entire image while editing and tools are easier to reach. For example, to show before and after images previously you had to use three fingers but now, you can make a single tap and hold the screen. The interface can now also be expanded so things such as titles, captions and copyright information can be added to photos via the mobile app. 

Version 2.6 also adds in a brand new capture interface (the same that Android users received earlier this year) that provides access to a new professional mode that provides control over all aspects of your camera’s exposure and focus.

Commenting on the update, Adobe said: "Our design team reached out to photographers of all skill levels to help us figure out how people edit with Lightroom mobile, what’s missing, and how we could make it even better. This update represents our first release taking advantage of this research."

The teams for both Lightroom for iPads, as well as Lightroom for Android, are also working on adding in the new edit and info experiences and hope they'll be able to release an update soon. 

For those who use Lightroom CC, the new update brings a more responsive piece of software and you can now zoom to fit and zoom to fill (previously, Lightroom would not completely fill the loupe window). Other additional features include the ability to filter or create smart collections for images that have Snapshots associated with them and you can export a Collection Set as a new catalogue. 

Reference View is a new view mode available in the Develop Module in Lightroom CC that allows you to compare 2 different images in order to make them visually consistent. This is helpful when making a group of images from a single event look similar or setting the white balance appropriately in mixed lighting conditions.

To get started with the new Reference View: 

1. Go to the Develop Module
2. Click on Reference View. It’s on the Toolbar, and you may need to show the Toolbar if hidden
3. Drag and Drop your Reference Photo onto the left pane. You can change your Reference Photo by either dragging a different image onto the left pane or using the "Set as Reference Photo" context menu in the Library Module.
4. Edit the active photo. Use the Reference Photo to guide your editing decisions.

The goal of the Adobe Camera Raw update is to provide additional camera raw support, lens profile support and to address bugs that were introduced in previous releases of Camera Raw. With version 9.8 the following cameras are now supported: 

• Canon EOS M5
• Fujifilm XA3
• Google Pixel
• Google Pixel XL
• Hasselblad X1D
• Leica TL
• Nikon D5600
• Olympus E-M1 Mark II (*)
• Olympus PEN E-PL8
• Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FZ 2500 (DMCFZ2000 and DMCFZH1)
• Pentax K-70
• Samsung Galaxy S7
• Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge
• Sony Alpha a6500 (ILCE 6500)
• Sony Alpha a99 II (ILCA99M2)
• Sony DSC RX100 Mark V

* denotes preliminary support

Camera Raw 9.8 is now available through the update mechanism in Photoshop CC and the Creative Cloud application. To installs the new version of Lightroom CC, select 'Help' in the software and go to 'Updates'.