is it possible to use iPad as a pen tablet with lightroom classic + big screen (possibly with mac)??

[rb16826567]

I haver a macbook pro where i do all my editing, but i also have a iPad pro which i still haven't found a good use for with photo editing. 

curious if it would be possible to use it a pen tablet with lightroom classic *while* still editing on my big screen (studio display) ??? that would be:fire::fire::fire:

[Jill_C]

Since LRC is very keyboard driven trying to use it with a tablet would be very frustrating, if not impossible...

[rb16826567]

i was hoping i could use it in addition to my regular macos lightroom controls. as a pen tablet.

[Conrad_C]

Since LRC is very keyboard driven trying to use it with a tablet would be very frustrating, if not impossible...

By @Jill_C

In this scenario, the iPad would be used as a secondary display or input device for a Mac, which always has a keyboard attached, so you still have full use of the keyboard and lose nothing.

(Also, although a keyboard greatly accelerates using Lightroom Classic, the keyboard is mostly for shortcuts. Most features in Lightroom Classic are accessible with buttons or menu commands, so it is actually possible to use most Lightroom Classic features with a mouse alone. The exceptions are just a few modifiers, and of course anything requiring text entry such as keywords and captions.)

[Conrad_C]

If you set up the iPad Pro using the Sidecar feature, your Mac will recognize it as an external display, which Lightroom Classic can use.

If you set up the iPad Pro through Sidecar using Extended Desktop mode, the problem is that the Apple Pencil will operate only on the iPad Pro display and will not be able to cross over to any other displays.

To get what you want, you can set up the iPad Pro through Sidecar using Screen Mirroring. The iPad Pro will then show the same image as the main Mac display, so you can use the Apple Pencil to control what you see on the iPad Pro while watching the same thing happen on your main display. So, for example, you could use the Apple Pencil on the iPad Pro to paint brush masks in the Lightroom Classic Develop module shown on both the Mac and iPad displays.

But be aware that Screen Mirroring requires that both displays use the same pixel dimensions. Because the iPad Pro display is so much smaller than a Studio Display, that means the screen display will look a lot smaller on the iPad Pro, and UI controls may become tiny and hard to click or drag. It might be possible to change the display resolution settings when mirroring so that the image is larger and easier to read on the iPad Pro, but that would lower the resolution of the mirrored screen image on the Studio Display.

So it can work, but with a few tradeoffs.

[rb16826567]

hey thanks! the stylus is exactly the thing i was hoping to leverage. that's a bummer about resolution limitation but sounds like that's the only option 😞 i will try it! 

would you recommend still getting a Wacom tablet even when someone has a macbook + ipad pro? 

[Conrad_C]

It depends on what you need. If all you need is a way to paint in Lightroom Classic and Photoshop with a stylus, then a good graphics tablet without a screen can be useful, like the Wacom Intuos Pro line which is what I have.

If what you want is a way to paint directly on the screen, then you need a tablet that has a display built into it such as a Wacom Cintiq. This type of tablet is what an iPad can replace. But again, if you like working on a large display, no iPad comes close to the size of a Studio Display. The Wacom Cintiqs are available from 16 to 32 inches, much larger than any iPad, but they are also very expensive.

But I also think a stylus is much less useful in Lightroom Classic than in Photoshop or Illustrator. Photoshop and Illustrator offer many opportunities to do a lot of pressure-sensitive painting, retouching, and drawing. But in Lightroom Classic, a stylus is helpful less often. Mostly when painting masks with a brush (the Brush mask, or Objects mask tool in Brush Select mode), or when using the Healing tool. But for the rest of it, Lightroom Classic is mostly about clicking and dragging a lot of tiny controls, which are often easier to grab precisely with a mouse or trackpad pointer.

[Theresa J]

Another option is to sync images from LrC to Lightroom then use the Lightroom app on the iPad for editing. I do this a lot because I enjoy editing with my iPad. However, editing is limited because the new AI masking tools are not yet available in the mobile version of Lightroom.

[rb16826567]

hmm you sync it using lightroom cloud ? 

[rb16826567]

does the sync preserve editing done in LrC? 

[Theresa J]

Yes. It's pretty simple. Follow these steps.

1. create a Collection and put photos in it that you want to edit with the iPad
2. In LrC, click on the cloud icon in the upper right corner and turn on the sync
3. click the small space to the left of the collection name to turn on the sync for the collection

Give it a few minutes to complete the sync, then check Lightroom in your iPad. You should see an Album for the Collection you created in step 1 with the photos and any edits that were done in LrC. Further edit your photos with the iPad and the edits will sync back to LrC.

Note: If there are photos in Lightroom, they will download to your computer and import into LrC.

[rb16826567]

whoa this is interesting! never considered using their cloud but if i can seamlessly switch between iPad and LrC that would be pretty epic! thank you! i will try it and report back 

[Theresa J]

It is epic. I've been using this workflow for several years now. I love my iPad for editing.

[rb16826567]

i verifed my shared collection is available in lightroom

does your workflow also work with photoshop on ipad?  i noticed photoshop has its own cloud, but maybe since they're both from Adobe there would be a way to share across

[Conrad_C]

does your workflow also work with photoshop on ipad?  i noticed photoshop has its own cloud, but maybe since they're both from Adobe there would be a way to share across

By @rb16826567

Similar, but different. If you use the Photoshop Cloud Documents workflow (save a document as a Cloud Document), you can open it in one click/tap from the Home screen on both the desktop and iPad versions of Photoshop.

So if you want to edit a Mac or Windows Photoshop document with the Apple Pencil in Photoshop on iPad, all you have to do is save it as a Photoshop Cloud Document and then pop it open in Photoshop on your iPad. Any iPad changes will be synced up to the Cloud Document, so then those iPad edits will sync down to Photoshop on your Mac.

[Theresa J]

Unfortunately even though both are clouds, and both are part of the greater Adobe Creative Cloud, they are different clouds and they don't talk to each other. I wish it was more simple.

You can send images from Lightroom on your iPad to Photoshop on your iPad. However, if the image originally came from Lightroom Classic, it will not be full resolution. So I would say this is not a viable workflow.

You can save Photoshop documents from your computer to Photoshop's cloud docs. This allows you to open the same file with Photoshop on your iPad. However, a Photoshop Cloud doc can't be imported into Lightroom Classic.

I'm sorry to say the Lightroom and Photoshop iPad workflow is a bit of a mess if you use Lightroom Classic.