How to Add Adobe Lightroom Mobile's Superpowers to Your Post-Production Workflow

Last year, Adobe introduced Lightroom Mobile for the iPad. At the time of my intro post,Lightroom Mobile was available only on the iPad and still in its infancy. In the time since, it has hit the iPhone and a score of new features have been added.

Adobe Lightroom Mobile is now deeply integrated into my workflow. It has let me disconnect from the desk in some exciting and power ways. In this tutorial I'll share my experience and you'll learn how to use the power of Adobe Lightroom Mobile to supercharge post-production your workflow.

1. Getting Started with Lightroom Mobile

First, let's look at what you'll need to get started with Lightroom Mobile.

The first is an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription. At $9.99 per month for the photography package, Adobe has geared a product offering directly to photographers that includes all of the photographic essentials. This includes always up-to-date copies of Photoshop, Lightroom, and the cloud storage that enables your Lightroom Mobile experience. There's also a 30 day free trial to try before you buy.

To sign into Creative Cloud and Lightroom Mobile, click the "Get started with Lightroom mobile" nameplate in the top left of the application and sign in.

After you've created a Creative Cloud account, click the Get Started with Lightroom Mobile text that you will see in the top left corner of the application (if you don't see it, you can also choose Preferences > Lightroom Mobile to enter your credentials) and enter your sign in data.

2. Syncing Collections

Lightroom Mobile accesses images that are in synced collections. Instead of accessing all images that are in your Lightroom catalog, you first need to add a selection of images to a collection and then synchronize that collection.

To synchronize a collection, simply click to the left of the collection. You'll be asked to either sync the collection or stop synchronizing a collection that is already connected.

Once you're signed in, you can click the arrow to the left of a collection to sync it to Lightroom Mobile.

Once the synchronization completes, your synced collections will be accessible on Lightroom Mobile. For the purpose of this tutorial, I'm using an iPad Air 2, although an iPhone app has recently become available.

3. Library Maintenance

The ideal use for Lightroom Mobile is to work on maintaining your catalog away from your computer. It's perfect for working in your collection when you don't need the full power of a workstation or laptop.

Here are a few ways I work with Lightroom Mobile to maintain my image collection:

Culling

If your catalog is anything like mine, you've got plenty of photos that can be scrubbed from your archive. The culling process is designed to mark images as keepers or rejects, and helps keep things orderly and manageable.

When you're working in Lightroom Mobile, one of the best features is the ability to cull and rate images. The interface will teach you how to use some of the most common controls. Speed Reviewing images is handy when your'e swiping up and down to change an image's flag status. This type of library maintenance makes Lightroom Mobile a welcome addition to any workflow.

Rating

Another great addition for your collection is ratings for all of your images. When you've rated images, you can easily pull the best images using filters quickly. Although it takes time and you may not want to focus on it while on your computer, ratings are fun and easy to add with Lightroom Mobile. This is especially true if you are reviewing images with someone else.

On the iPad, another favorite feature is that Star and Flag status can be changed at the same time. The first time that you attempt to swipe, Lightroom will allow you to turn on this feature. Adding both of these tags to your image simultaneously can help tidy up your collection quickly.

4. Web Galleries

Another great feature that is a part of the synced collections and Lightroom Mobile suite are the online galleries that are generated. These can even be shared publicly.

You can sign into Lightroom Mobile at http://lightroom.adobe.com . Once you login, you can view the same synced collections from the web interface.

To get started with sharing your Lightroom collections on the web, click the icon on the thumbnail and choose "Sharing Options."

Sharing galleries online is possible once you press "Shared" and copy and paste the public link. Your online galleries will be the same mosaic style your'e accustomed to seeing on Lightroom Mobile.

5. On The Fly Corrections

Finally, Lightroom Mobile has come in handy for short notice edits. With the ability to correct and crop on mobile, I find myself editing images that might otherwise go untouched. Here are some of my favorite tweaks to apply when editing on Mobile:

Applying an edit with Lightroom Mobile is incredibly intuitive. After tapping an image to open it, click the sliders button (second from left) at the bottom of the app. Then, you can click one of the many panels to control exposure, black levels, clarity, and any other slider you would find in the desktop application. Swiping from left to right on the image moves the slider similarly to the desktop slider control. These intuitive controls make Lightroom Mobile a great compliment to your workflow.

6. Collaboration and Review

Whether you're working with a client or just showing your work-in-progress to a friend, sometimes it's more natural to have a casual review on a tablet than it is to have a formal sit-down with a laptop or send a web link. Lightroom Mobile is great for saying "hey, check this out" and sharing as you go.

Recap

If you're trying to get away from your desk but continue your work, Lightroom Mobile is a great way to do it. Whether it's light editing or a way to power through your cull, there's no doubt that it can work its way into almost any photographers' workflow.