P: Ability to change the interface background color

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I would love to be able to change the background color of the Lightroom Mobile interface while I'm editing an image. Working freelance and traveling a lot and commuting, I use my iPad a lot to make adjustments so I can save time. Several of my jobs have required me to have backgrounds close to white but without being white (specifically e-commerce photos). Even though I'm using the clipping mask to see my white and black points, it would still be nice to have a white background during those projects to make sure I don't make my models look like they're floating in the middle of nowhere. It would be one more step I could get done before even getting to the studio! Thanks!

[Dominik23462028l9ub]

The fact that this low hanging fruit has not been implemented yet makes me think the price for the subscription is not worth it anyway. One would expect continuous improvement from software with a subscription model.

I can't comprehend how this absolutely trivial feature has not made it to the front of the developers backlog by now.

[simo.b]

I'm often editing images on the go using Lightroom Mobile for posting to social sites. Most of these use a white viewing background, making my images appear visually darker on final display. Would be great to have the option of a light color scheme when editing as otherwise it's just pure guesswork.

ps - a black background seems default on all photo apps when editing, seems an odd choice as I think the most common viewing environment for final use is a white background.

[Fat Igor]

What makes this even more annoying is the the Creative Cloud app is in a nice light mode.

[lud1k]

Being able to view and edit your photos on a white or gray coloured background is essential. This is a simple feature that is present in Lightroom classic. My pictures always are too dark when only being able to edit on a black background. Currently I have to either export the images to view on a light background, or wait until I can view them on Lightroom classic on my desktop. Photoshop on iOS can be switched between dark and light modes, this isn't an ideal solution but is better than what Lightroom is currently offering.

[iLuv2photo13]

I would like my ipad app to have white in the background.  It is a feature in the web based version but not the ipad version of Lightroom.  

[thefakeoyen]

This was 7 years ago and Adobe still does not care.

[umlautnord]

I think an important addition here is that now that Lightroom supports HDR editing, it's incredibly useful to use a white background to have a baseline for "SDR white." Adobe's own blog post introducing HDR editing in Lightroom suggests this as a technique for judging if you've gotten too far into the HDR realm ("white surround"). Given that recent iPhones, at least, pretty much all have screens capable of multiple HDR stops, it seems silly to not have this as a mobile option. The mobile app supports HDR, and Adobe says it is useful to use a white background to edit HDR. So...

Personally, the most HDR-capable device I have is my phone (MacBook Pro M1 can go to 1 stop; iPhone 12 can go to 3). If I'm going deep into HDR, I need to move to my phone to check/edit things for at least part of the time.

[márkn91037873]

I think I have found a trick, that solves this problem, at leas for me. When a picture is open, tapping on the share icon, there is an option 'Add border and share'. This will show you a preview before actually sharing, where you can adjust the color and thickness of the border. And voila, you can see your image with a white background, of course, by these extra steps. I hope this helps some of you.

[Aaron37118226c2tg]

I've been working on some night scenes lately, and find cropping certain images very frustrating: I can't see the edge of a pitch black horizon against the black lightroom background. It would be nice to be able to switch from a "light mode" and a "dark mode" 

[wrongly_Neo]

Absolutely agree, I am also missing this very basic feature.

[Joeshoewa]

Super silly solution

invert colors on device settings and then flip the curve in edit like your doing a negative. When your done with the batch just export as png or whatever you use and import the new file and flip the curve again because everything is now inverted. As usual contrast is the only non inverted thing.

[wushan]

Please support changing the background color from black to white, similar to the desktop version. Editing on a black background can make a photo appear too dark, as there’s no white color for reference.

[Michael370]

Upvoted - new Lightroom user posting to Instagram, really disappointed in the results - Lightroom has a great suite of features but when uploaded to instagram, my pictures look dull and flat - being able to edit with a true white environment would make such a difference to this.

After seeing the lack of support for a basic feature requested over 6 years ago, it has persuaded me against paying for the subscription.

I'm sure there are many others who have experienced this, who haven't bothered to find the forum, add an upvote, and a comment - this must be the tip of the iceberg!

[BetteLind]

Must give up using lightroom - my eyes just cannot cope with dark mode. Why can you not provide such a simple feature?

[spoobie123]

my current workaround is exporting with a white background which is found under the share feature. I don't even actually export it. I just look at what it looks like in the little preview, and I can kind of judge if the photo is bright enough against that white background or not But I agree with your sentiment 

[handandfire]

I have significant astigmatism, which on the best of days can make viewing Lightroom

 difficult after long periods of time -- But, generally, this does not come up as much of an issue when working on my mobile device, as I can view the entirety of an image without background interference. That said, I've noticed I have a particularly hard time "fully" seeing my images on Lightroom cc on my Mac due to the middle-grey tone used as background. It seems to me that the lack of contrast of the background shade is overwhelming (however weird that sounds)...so the brightness just isn't enough?? I've looked for ways to change the background display to a different shade, but have found that to only be possible with Lightroom Classic. I'm suggesting an option to change the overall background display to at least reflect the options of "Light Grey, Medium Grey, Dark Grey"  that are available to "classic" users. Honestly though, I think having the option to change to any color would be desirable to many folks. If I've somehow missed how to do this, apologies. Thank you. Xx

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

Hi @handandfire, I have some good news for you...  while the background options are not changeable on mobile, the background around the photo can be changed on your Mac. Go into Detail view (single-image) and right-click the area around the photo. Then, you get the same options that are available in Classic.

[Tristan Hess]

Wow, thank you very much Victoria! That is great news indeed. I just tried it and am very happy this finally got implemented. Do you know for how long the feature has been available?

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

@Tristan Hess 2022ish, I believe, maybe earlier. It's been a while, but it's not very discoverable.

[Tristan Hess]

@Victoria Bampton LR Queen Haha, funny that (as far as it seems) all the people in this thread including myself haven't discovered the feature in the past two years. So thanks again for letting us know 🙂 

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

This was released for desktop but remains an open request for Mobile. 

Looks like no one marked it released....

[Lianna_Flemming98]

Please  make mobile have a white background so we can see how our pictures will look on social media platforms!

[Lukas263016813n6f]

After 8 years? Is it possible?

I find nothing 😕

[LukasHruza]

I would love to have the option to change background colour to white when editing photos in Lightroom for iPad. It would be much nicer since I always add white borders.

[Aboy988]

I appreciate some of the additions made to Lightroom CC but one of the biggest changes that needs to implemented is the ability to change the color theme.

Every other app, changes can be made to the appearance; however with Lightroom CC, that option does not exist. What gives? I know this would be very simple to implement. Please consider making this addition.