P: Lightroom app for tablets (iPad, iOS, Android)

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Mini Lightroom iPad APP!
I would love to be able to export a database of images (iPad resolution thumbs) and while I'm on a plane edit keywords, change develop settings, and create slideshows, ect.
When I return I could sync with my main catalogue.
Tethered shooting maybe?
I would pay big money for this!
cheers,
Rick McCawley

[Butch_M]

Then you should take a look at Photosmith ... it's not an Adobe effort ... but designed to work with Lr and could be available soon.

http://blog.photosmithapp.com/

And Shuttersnitch:

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/mult...

and the new EyeFi update for transmitting photos from camera to iPad wirelessly without an adhoc WiFi:

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/cont...

[Lee_Jay]

And next all the other tablets? All the smart phones? The Motorola Atrix with dock? Netbooks are already closest (and some already run LR), why not those?

There are very view things I can think of to have the team work on that are more distracting and less useful than this one. They already have to support XP, Vista, Win7, 32-bit, 64-bit, MacOS 10.5 and 10.6, why add iOS, Android, Symbian, Blackberry OS and Linux? They have plenty of other stuff to do than support devices that don't have enough processing performance, storage, screen real-estate or input devices to handle raw image processing and management Lightroom style.

[Butch_M]

"why add iOS, Android, Symbian, Blackberry OS" ... because that is where the market is trending ...

The Ford Model T was a wonderful solid vehicle ... however, technology and the marketplace evolved to the point that made it less than welcome with the average customer ... they wanted more ... they wanted different ... and were willing to pay for it ...

While I agree that the current offerings of tablets from a hardware standpoint will have to expand and improve to offer full functionality for Lr ... it's only a matter of a short time frame until it will be sufficient to get the job done ... better Adobe should be prepared for that eventuality ... instead of behind times trying to catch up with competitors ...

Adobe is already embracing tablet usage offering several apps that have become quite popular with users ... and rightly so ... considering there is just under 20 million iPads in use already with nearly that many expected to be sold by the end of 2011 ...

Such devices are no longer frivolous toys ... but quickly becoming useful and powerful tools that can enhance and benefit an image workflow ... I'd hate to see Adobe miss the boat on this one as there are considerable benefits for both the developers and end users to reap ...

[Lee_Jay]

"Such devices are no longer frivolous toys ... but quickly becoming useful and powerful tools that can enhance and benefit an image workflow"

Not so much. The 7-year-old PC I just retired is capable of 10 times the processing performance of the original iPad, and over 3 times the performance of the iPad 2. The computer I replaced it with is capable of over 15 times the performance of my old machine.

With pixel counts continually going up, processing performance has a long way to go before these portable machines get to a tolerable level for doing significant raw processing on the "thousands of files" model around which Lightroom was designed.

Lightroom is power-hungry. PS can do lots of things on a single image without a lot of processing horsepower because it's pixel-based. That's why that application is more well-suited to use on these under-powered devices. I'll say it again - Lightroom is power-hungry.

[Lee_Jay]

Let me be clear - an application similar to the Lightroom Viewer might be a good light-weight application for devices like these. Viewing previews, rating, messing with metadata and so on might be okay on these machine. But, in my opinion, importing and generating previews, running the Develop module and performing exports of all sorts is going to have to wait until these machines get a lot more processing power than they have right now.

[Butch_M]

Lee Jay ... you missed the whole point ... the request wasn't for the Whole Enchilada ... but Lr Lite ...

"Mini Lightroom iPad APP!
I would love to be able to export a database of images (iPad resolution thumbs) and while I'm on a plane edit keywords, change develop settings, and create slideshows, ect.
When I return I could sync with my main catalogue.
Tethered shooting maybe?
I would pay big money for this! "

Keywording, slideshows and syncing with a master catalog (though I doubt there is enough resources for any extensive Develop Module work) ... however, I think selecting a preset to be applied to selected images once back into the healthy confines of the full version of Lr is VERY doable ... and something the iPad is very capable of ... as indicated by the first link I posted above ... Photosmith is already capable of much of this ... and it's only a first version app ...

I also believe, that once Apple and other hardware manufacturers see the market for tablet form factor ... you will see exponential design and hardware improvements that were only imagined a short time ago ... there is already an extensive push on processor and battery development advancements ...

While you may not find much use for the option ... I assure you many, many other users do ... and you will discover you are in the extreme minority that doesn't find the possibility useful ...

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

I agree, I can certainly see a use for a LR-compatible iPad app. I might actually get around to finishing keywording my old images if I could take a subsection of my catalog out with me on my iPad to do when I have a spare few minutes.

[Lee_Jay]

"Lee Jay ... you missed the whole point ... the request wasn't for the Whole Enchilada ... but Lr Lite ..."

"...while I'm on a plane edit keywords, change develop settings, and create slideshows,"

"...(though I doubt there is enough resources for any extensive Develop Module work..."

See my point?

I suggested above what would actually be an LR-lite, and it doesn't include "chang(ing) develop settings" or "creat(ing) slideshows" or any other such processor-intensive work.

[Butch_M]

Lee Jay ... I conceded the Develop Module limitations ... on that we agree ... though you gotta be aware there are already about a half dozen iPad/iPhone apps that can handle adding star ratings, keywords, captions and other IPTC meta data to images ... and the iPad can do slideshows with RAW files natively ... so setting the hooks in an Lr Lite app for iOs shouldn't be all that difficult or hardware intensive ... it certainly wouldn't be what we are accustomed to with the desktop version ... but it could be a useful tool for field work on small batches of images and not require a duplication of effort upon returning from the job/trip to sync that work accomplished on location and sync it back to a working catalog.

There are also a couple of very powerful image editing apps for the iPad that do a great job ... even batch processing ... working with RAW files as in Filterstorm, Filterstorm Pro and Photogene ... so it IS possible ...

I only know that when I am working an assignment on deadline and need to prep a handful of images for FTP transmission ... the iPad is a VERY functional tool ... the availability of an app to sync those efforts would be very valuable ...

[Lee_Jay]

So, you're not going to have the Develop module and you're going to "prep" images? Exactly what are you going to do to them to "prep" them? The only thing I can think of is to rename and maybe add copyright metadata to existing JPEGs.

[Lee_Jay]

So, you're not going to have the Develop module and you're going to "prep" images? Exactly what are you going to do to them to "prep" them? The only thing I can think of is to rename and maybe add copyright metadata to existing JPEGs.

[Lee_Jay]

In my opinion, Victoria has the right idea. Take an existing catalog or catalog fragment and mess with its metadata - keywording, IPTC, ratings, and so on.

[Jeremy 2]

I think just adding the catalogue to the ipad would suffice. Due to space limitations, probably also the option of just adding jpg/thumbnail version of the images to view on the ipad so we can view etc/filter by the keywords & edit the metadata etc on the ipad (i.e. library module) but not any intensive editing of the images.
It would still allow slideshows etc & allow us to show photos to people when away from home that they can choose.

[SeanMcCormack]

You can do this with Photosmith already, with a little working around.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

1st off I would love to say I love Lightroom 3. But I was reading on line about this program called Capture One 6 Pro. In that program you are able to view images on your iPad when you have your camera tethered to the program. You can also apply settings and they will stay that way when you view them. Also it gives a high rez preview to see if your in focus or not. Now I know you Photoshop has some new apps out and I love them. But if you made a lightroom app that let you view photos when tethering or in just the gallery as well. Maybe some tools when in develop mode. And maybe it could play slideshows for you so your laptop is free for other things. But if you had that one app this application would rock so much more.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Lightroom would be improved greatly with this app....

[stephenjdarlington]

I would love a version of Lr for the iPad, so I can rate, keyword etc while on the go.

This is how I would see this working for me

* in Lightroom, I add images to a collection
* that collection is then synced with my iPad (image previews and metadata only)
* work on that collection on the iPad (flag, tag etc etc)
* the changes are synced back when the iPad is next connected

This all needs to be as seemless as possible, not done with workarounds, hacks etc

[Butch_M]

What you want is available ... though not from Adobe ... check out Photosmith

http://blog.photosmithapp.com/

[stephenjdarlington]

From what I have read about Photosmith the photos are imported (using the camera connection kit on the iPad) into Photosmith before being transfered over to Lightroom. There doesnt seem to be a way of going the other way. i.e. import into Lr and then transfer them over to Ps. And no I dont want to export what I have already in Lr to a memory card etc...

[marcpel]

The sync process from Photosmith do cuurently only go from PS to LR but they are developping th reverse and so soon we should be able for instance to import on Ipad juts a collection or subset and work on on the metadata. Note that PS sync plug-in already sync keywords and send teh whole set of LR to Ipad

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Can you tell me if there are any plans to create something like a lite version of Lightroom for the iPad? I would like to be able to perform a tethered capture to my iPad instead of having to use my laptop since my iPad is much lighter and more portable. You could include some of the more common settings / tools that are used during capture like White Balance adjustments, histogram, etc... Thank you

[johnrellis]

If you haven't already, check out Adobe's newly announced Carousel:

http://www.adobe.com/products/carouse...

It doesn't have everything people here are asking for on the iPad (tethered capture, in particular) . But it claims to use the "Lightroom engine" for image processing, it lets you do some editing, and it seamlessly syncs with other Apple devices and computers.

Hopefully, it's much improved from Adobe's past attempt to sync with the cloud (Photoshop.com, Elements), which was buggy and mediocre.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

...and it has a huge downside ... it's an annual pay ... I wouldn't do that ...

[areohbee]

The link above to Carousel is broken now - didn't use to be I don't think, but is now...

Here it is: http://9to5mac.com/2011/09/07/adobe-u...

[johnrellis]

Here's the Adobe link:

http://www.adobe.com/products/carouse...