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CNET reports on a sneak peek from Adobe product manager Tom Hogarty showing off the company's concept for Lightroom-style photo editing on the iPad. The app would rely on cloud-based connections to serve as a companion app to the full Lightroom software, but offer a number of higher-end features for on-the-go photo editing.

lightroom_ipad.jpg
He wouldn't promise when the app would ship or what exactly it would do, but he did demonstrate some features of the prototype software running on an iPad 2. He also offered several details about its features:

- The ability to edit photos taken in raw photo formats, including Lightroom develop-module parameters like exposure, clarity, shadows, highlights, and white balance.

- Cloud-synchronized editing so that changes made on a tablet arrive on the same photo on the PC.

- The ability to zoom all the way to 100 percent for checking photo focus and details.
Hogarty also noted that he would like to bring features such photo sorting and flagging to the app, although other features such as brushes for tweaking photos have not been included.

The app is clearly a work in progress, with the feature set still yet to be finalized and performance issues remaining, but Adobe has made clear that it wants to make some of the same powerful photo editing tools from Lightroom available to photographers on the go. For photographers who travel and spend significant amounts of time in the field, an iPad capable of performing some Lightroom-style editing on raw images could significantly improve their efficiency and workflows.

Article Link: Adobe Shows Off Lightroom-Style Photo Editing for iPad
 

ChrisTX

macrumors 68030
Dec 30, 2009
2,690
54
Texas
For a mobile app, I have thoroughly enjoyed using PS Touch for the iPad. This looks to be another great iPad app from Adobe.
 

MattJessop

macrumors regular
Apr 24, 2007
215
43
Manchester, UK
I hope this isn't what deforstallization looks like...

"Icons were too flashy, so we flattened them out and just put text.... pure text.."
 

Eauboy

macrumors regular
Jan 28, 2008
148
27
Washington, DC
Tagging in the field

If you want to do tagging/rating in the field then sync later when you're back at your computer I recommend Photosmith.

I'm not sure I really need to edit my raw files in the field, but it is very convenient to add titles, rating, location, keywords, etc when on a trip for example. Then when you get back you just sync it to lightroom and it pulls over the raw files plus whatever metadata you have associated with those images.
 

slprescott

macrumors member
Mar 22, 2012
52
182
Another indicator of the Post-PC era

What I like about seeing higher end apps becoming available on the iPad is the evidence of the industry moving into the post-PC era.

In the early days of iPad -- and even largely now -- people have been living in a dual-device world: (1) Create content with a 'real' computer and (2) Consume content with a tablet.

Moving forward, applications like the one in this thread demonstrate that the iPad is moving into the content creation world too, decreasing our reliance on traditional laptops.
 

BJMRamage

macrumors 68030
Oct 2, 2007
2,710
1,233
would love for Apple to have Aperture do this "in the field" or "on the couch" rating system/maybe editing too via iPad and sync to main Mac running Aperture.

PLUS, with non-destructive changes the iPad is fine for starting on things.
 

iSRS

macrumors 6502
Mar 2, 2010
468
291
Adobe is really starting to release some great things. A side benefit of their Post War resurgence. Since they have up fighting tooth and nail to get flash on everything, they've returned to their roots of developing software and tools to do.
 

iGrip

macrumors 68000
Jul 1, 2010
1,626
0
Adobe is a great company! Every AppleFan should buy everything that they make out of sheer gratitude!

Even after The Steve dissed them so horribly, they didn't abandon Apple. they are still plugging away, doing their level best to make AppleFans happy.

THAT is dedication. Thanks Adobe! If only more companies were like Adobe, maybe the Mac would sell in significant numbers!
 

Small White Car

macrumors G4
Aug 29, 2006
10,966
1,463
Washington DC
While I'm glad that Adobe is doing this it is truly shameful that both Aperture and Final Cut Pro have not done anything at all like this yet. They're the 2 teams that should be leading the way with this kind of "companion app." And it's not because those programs need iPad integration so much as they're the teams that could have lead the way and show 3rd party developers what's possible. Even if few people used them just having them out there would put the iPad on a lot more developer's radars.

Adobe should be playing catch-up to Apple with stuff like this but instead they seem to be all alone.
 

Mr. Retrofire

macrumors 603
Mar 2, 2010
5,064
518
www.emiliana.cl/en
What I like about seeing higher end apps becoming available on the iPad is the evidence of the industry moving into the post-PC era.
No. This is NOT the full application. Btw, Lightroom, PS or Aperture are impossible on non-calibrated displays.

Post-PC era is a marketing term. An iPad is a Personal Computer (PC).

The app would rely on cloud-based connections to serve as a companion app to the full Lightroom software, but offer a number of higher-end features for on-the-go photo editing.
 

snowboarder

macrumors 6502a
Jun 9, 2007
538
1,998
without any proper file system, even "Load" and "Save" are complicated.
Thanks to Apple we'll be usuing iTunes to organize our images,
how convenient :(
iPad is capable of doing great things, the silly iOS is a limitation...
 

martygras9

macrumors 6502
Aug 13, 2007
264
73
Very exciting and looking forward to this.

Had to cut the video short unfortunately. Scott Kelby couldn't be a more irritating interviewer.
 

DJsteveSD

macrumors regular
Mar 4, 2011
175
19
Dallas, TX
without any proper file system, even "Load" and "Save" are complicated.
Thanks to Apple we'll be usuing iTunes to organize our images,
how convenient :(
iPad is capable of doing great things, the silly iOS is a limitation...

I still don't get why Apple makes it so difficult to deal with photos/folders.
 

AQUADock

macrumors 65816
Mar 20, 2011
1,049
37
THAT is dedication. Thanks Adobe! If only more companies were like Adobe, maybe the Mac would sell in significant numbers!

Why do you always go on about mac sales, and what has that got to do with an iPad app?
 

ThunderSkunk

macrumors 68040
Dec 31, 2007
3,783
3,990
Milwaukee Area
Hm. Regarding doing our edits on calibrated monitors. If your images are destined for print, then of course it's necessary, but if your images will be viewed on screen, then 1, for desktop users, considering that most people don't have a calibrated desktop/laptop monitor, they'll be seeing your work off-kilter anyway, and 2, for the increasingly commonplace tablet viewers, at least they'll all be looking at consistent displays you can match.

It may make sense to just do start the workflow doing quick organization & edits on ipad for iPad, then, since those edits are automatically sync'd to your desktop anyway, continue those that warrant futher work on a calibrated display for print. Since you invariably wind up doing a separate edit for print anyway, it's not an increase of work overall, but a decrease on the front end.

Nice.

Now if only Apple would bump the connection to Thunderbolt, we'd be able to efficiently transfer the huge raw files from our Leica S2 to the iPad in the first place.
 

Daalseth

macrumors 6502a
Jun 16, 2012
599
306
Adobe is a great company! Every AppleFan should buy everything that they make out of sheer gratitude!
Seriously? Flash, Shockwave, and Reader updates are one of my biggest headaches as a sysadmin. They seem to patch Flash several times per week and every one wants to push some unwanted toolbar or application with it. I finally have started ripping anything Adobe out of systems unless it was absolutely necessary.

If more companies were like Adobe, I'd buy stock in Tylenol and Tums.
 

sash

macrumors 6502a
Nov 23, 2004
592
1
For photographers who travel and spend significant amounts of time in the field, an iPad capable of performing some Lightroom-style editing on raw images could significantly improve their efficiency and workflows.

Hmm, how on Earth I'm going to upload a 20+ Mpx photo in RAW while traveling? OK, I'm at the Great Canyon. I took 1000 pics. Every pic is 20-30 MB. What next?
 

tmroper

macrumors regular
Dec 4, 2008
121
0
Palo Alto
Hmm, how on Earth I'm going to upload a 20+ Mpx photo in RAW while traveling? OK, I'm at the Great Canyon. I took 1000 pics. Every pic is 20-30 MB. What next?


Yeah, every time people mention cloud storage and services for photography I cringe. I don't think the people who write and talk about such things realize how big RAW files have gotten and how scarce electricity--let alone wi-fi--can be in some places. The iPad really just needs a way to get files from your flash card to an external backup drive for editing later.
 

Philotech

macrumors member
Oct 25, 2010
62
16
Yeah, every time people mention cloud storage and services for photography I cringe. I don't think the people who write and talk about such things realize how big RAW files have gotten and how scarce electricity--let alone wi-fi--can be in some places. The iPad really just needs a way to get files from your flash card to an external backup drive for editing later.

If you read the LR5 announcement, then you'll find that LR5 uses a unique scaled-down version of the original RAWs (which are themselves still RAWs) to allow for offline editing on devices with little memory (in the context of the full LR5: laptops with SSD permanent storage). Allegedly, those mini-RAWs use only 1/10th of the space of the original RAW, which would be only half the amount used by a full-res JPEG coming from the camera (CANON 550 in my case). You can then apply all the modifications to the scaled-down raw, and they will be saved as protocol as always with RAWs. Once your full-size RAW photo database gets online again, all mods will be applied to those.

Transferred to tablet use, this would mean that LR5 syncs the scaled-down RAWs along with their mod files to iCloud, the tablet syncs both to local memory and lets me work on the RAWs. The mod files will be re-synced to the cloud, then synced to my main machine and there automatically applied to the full-size RAWs.

Perfect workstream for people on-the-go. Of course with limitations with regard to color-proofing, fine details etc.

EDIT: See for example the sexplanation at dpreview: http://www.dpreview.com/articles/1304150010/lightroom-5-public-beta-whats-new#preview
 
Last edited:

tmroper

macrumors regular
Dec 4, 2008
121
0
Palo Alto
If you read the LR5 announcement, then you'll find that LR5 uses a unique scaled-down version of the original RAWs (which are themselves still RAWs) to allow for offline editing on devices with little memory (in the context of the full LR5: laptops with SSD permanent storage). Allegedly, those mini-RAWs use only 1/10th of the space of the original RAW, which would be only half the amount used by a full-res JPEG coming from the camera (CANON 550 in my case). You can then apply all the modifications to the scaled-down raw, and they will be saved as protocol as always with RAWs. Once your full-size RAW photo database gets online again, all mods will be applied to those.

Transferred to tablet use, this would mean that LR5 syncs the scaled-down RAWs along with their mod files to iCloud, the tablet syncs both to local memory and lets me work on the RAWs. The mod files will be re-synced to the cloud, then synced to my main machine and there automatically applied to the full-size RAWs.

Perfect workstream for people on-the-go. Of course with limitations with regard to color-proofing, fine details etc.

EDIT: See for example the sexplanation at dpreview: http://www.dpreview.com/articles/1304150010/lightroom-5-public-beta-whats-new#preview

Thanks, I forgot about those new "Smart Previews" in the LR5 beta. I haven't downloaded it yet, but that feature has me very intrigued. Time to maybe give it a try.
 

Renzatic

Suspended
I hope this isn't what deforstallization looks like...

"Icons were too flashy, so we flattened them out and just put text.... pure text.."

No. That's what pre-alpha software looks like.

"We're more concerned about getting the idea to work at the moment than we are making everything look pretty....we'll worry about the icons later".

Though their UI for Photoshop Touch is a good example of The Flat...

PSTouch.jpg
 

jhwalker

macrumors 6502
May 31, 2011
377
693
I love the idea - I use Lightroom / Photoshop as my primary workflow tool(s) on my MacBook Pro, but usually only take my iPad with me "on the road". I currently do some preliminary processing of my raw captures on the iPad using Snapseed (or the like) for social media, etc., but then feel compelled to completely redo everything in Lightroom when I get home.

I would love to have the capability to get started on my iPad and have my preliminary work saved / synched via iCloud to my home laptop for further work when I get home.

This is a product I would use extensively :)
 
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