Lightroom Mobile - no sharpening?

[scotth51774914]

Hi,

Does anyone know how to achieve sharpening using Lightroom Mobile for iOS? It seems like quite a basic editing tool is missing? It's odd that it's available on Photoshop Express but not Lightroom Mobile.

The only options seem to be using the Detailed preset, which appears to be the same as clarity, and by adding noise, but these only allow you to select low, medium or high which is very limited.

Scott

[JP Hess]

It probably isn't a good idea to try to do sharpening on Lightroom Mobile because you aren't looking at the full-sized image. Those types of critical adjustments should probably be done on the main computer with the original images. Sharpening properly in Lightroom requires being able to view the image at 1:1 magnification.

[scotth51774914]

I know LR Mobile pulls smart previews from the Cloud, but what if the file originated from your iOS device? I can import full resolution JPEGs from my camera to my iPad Pro using the Lighting to SD Card Reader, make edits, then save the edited file at original resolution back to the Camera Roll, which is useful if you are away from the PC.

[Abambo]

low-med-high is probably the only kind of sharpening you need. To be able to put sharpening in 100 steps does not mean, that I use those 100 steps.

[scotth51774914]

Like I said, there is no sharpening option in LR Mobile. You can add a noise preset at low, medium or high but it doesn't really achieve the same effect. There is a clarity setting as well, but that just seems to add contrast instead of detail.

It's annoying because LR Mobile has some advanced editing features like white balance and vignetting but lacks some of the basic features which are already available in the Photoshop Express app. You need to switch to Lightroom Desktop to do the things you can't do in LR Mobile, which is annoying.

[Jao vdL]

I wondered about this with raw capture available on a few android devices and coming to iOS anytime now, we're going to need sharpening tools if we edit those on LR/mobile. Then again, there is so much missing from LR/mobile already that sharpening wouldn't be the first thing on my list of what to add. JPEGs from the iOS camera are already sharpened though and shouldn't be sharpened much more and probably can't without breaking down. Also as mentioned above the smart previews that are lower res than the original shouldn't be used to sharpen.

[scotth51774914]

I would also love to see HDR merge, panorama and full RAW support in LR Mobile, but now I'm dreaming.

[Maxicando · Accepted solution]

Hi Scott,

what you can do is pull up a radial local correction with no edge smoothness over your entire photo. There you have access to Sharpness and even Noise and Moirè.

It doesn't provide the whole feature set like masking, but it's a start.

Max

[scotth51774914]

I've also learned this workaround but it shouldn't be that difficult to apply uniform sharpening. Hopefully Adobe has realised this and is working on an update.

[Abambo]

The problem is, that you are not working at the full image resolution. You cannot appreciate the sharpening to its correct value.

[scotth51774914]

Yes I am if I have imported the image directly into the camera roll from the memory card reader.

[Nolind130460]

What is really missing though is output sharpening. When you export a file for printing on the desktop version you get choose how the file is prepared for printing or web use. The android version just asks if you want maximum file size. No mention of what the file is being exported for. You don't / can't see output sharpening on the screen but you can see it on the finished print.

[Peferling]

Agree. Horses for courses. White balance, crop and sharpening needs to be included at a minimum for any serious tool.

The concept of mobile is to stay mobile.  Any argument for pixel level editing goes out the door for this thread.  I would not shoot on a dslr/high end and then port stuff to my phone for editing.  Really.  I just want to balance, crop and sharpen to improve a cell phone snap before posting.  Should be a simple thing to do.  With this app, in regards to that approach, it's not.

The end all caveat is that there is another editor that does this already, and beautifully, (whose name I shall not mention).  Until then, this app is incomplete.