Capture photos with Lightroom for mobile (Android)

You can launch your in-app camera using one of the following ways:

• App shortcuts
• Camera widget

App shortcuts

On your device's home screen, long press on the Lightroom app icon to access the following shortcuts:

• Selfie. Launches the in-app camera module with your device's front camera.
• Lightroom Camera. Launches the in-app camera module with your device's back camera.
• Add Photos. Launches the import interface where you can select and add images from device's photo gallery.

Camera widget

You can add the Lightroom Camera widget on your phone's home screen. Tapping the Lightroom Camera widget takes you directly to Lightroom's in-app camera.

Capture settings

Tap () icon to display the Settings.

Assigns a function to your device's volume keys that you can use when accessing the in-app camera. Tap to choose None, Exposure Compensation, Capture, or Zoom.  

Turn ON to set the brightness of your device's screen to maximum while in the Capture mode.  

Turn ON to allow tagging of the location information within the EXIF metadata of your captured photo.

Turn ON to enable tooltips while in the Capture mode. You can tap the () icon, wherever displayed in the Capture interface, to view a tooltip.

This setting is available in the HDR mode only. Turn ON to also save the unprocessed original photo along with the processed raw HDR photo.

Saves a copy of the original captured image on your device.  

Capture photos in the Auto mode

Set on-camera flash options

Tap () icon to toggle flash options bar.  

Automatically turn the device's flash ON or OFF based on the external lighting conditions. This is the default flash option and good for general-purpose setting.

Turn ON the device's flash for every capture.

Turn OFF the device's flash for every capture.

Pinch to zoom

You can use a pinch gesture on the viewfinder screen to initiate the camera zoom.

• To zoom in, use the outward spread gesture.
• To zoom out, use the pinch gesture.

The zoom applied on your capture is non-destructive in nature, so you can always revert to the original capture (non-zoomed) while editing the photo.

Tap to focus

While capturing photos using Lightroom's in-app camera, your camera lens auto-focuses on the live scene by default. However, in scenarios where you want a sharper focus on a particular area of interest like a subject in the background instead of the foreground, you can manually refocus the lens on that area.

To do so:  

1. Tap on the viewfinder screen to get a sharper image of that region.
2. When you tap, a box overlay appears showing where the lens is refocusing.

Capture raw photos

Raw capture In the camera module, tap the capture file format badge (DNG, by default) at the top of the viewfinder and then choose DNG. You can now capture the photos in Digital Negative (DNG) raw format.

To check if your device supports DNG capture:

1. First ensure that the latest version of the Lightroom app is installed on your mobile device.
   
2. In the Albums view, tap () icon at the upper-left corner of the screen to bring up the sidebar menu.
   
3. In the menu, tap Device Info & Storage > Device Info.
   
4. Check whether DNG Capture Supported displays Yes or No. If it displays Yes, you can capture raw images using the in-app camera.

Compose shots using viewfinder overlays

Overlays help you to compose the shots.

Tap () icon to toggle overlays options.

By default, the overlays are turned off.

Align areas of the subject being captured along or at the junction of the thirds.    

Align areas of the subject being captured along or at the junction of the halves.

Align areas of the subject being captured along or at the junction of the Phi grid overlay that is based on the golden ratio.

Uses device's sensors to align the camera with the ground for leveled horizon shots and to avoid geometric distortion.

Shoot through Presets

Tap () icon on the lower-right corner to display the Presets. The following Presets are available:

• High contrast
• Flat
• Warm shadows
• High contrast black and white
• Flat black and white

Choose any of the presets to apply it on your live capture. This allows you to preview your photo before you capture it. When you launch the Adobe in-app camera again, it auto-defaults to the last preset that you used.

Set exposure compensation

When you swipe across the viewfinder screen, the Exposure Compensation slider appears. Drag the slider in either direction to set the desired exposure level.

Lock exposure compensation at its current value Tap () icon at the lower right corner to lock the exposure compensation at its current value. The icon turns yellow indicating the locked state and also displays the value at which the exposure is locked.

Preview last captured photo

In the camera module, tap on the lower-left (last shot) thumbnail to preview the last photos that you captured.

Shoot in different Crop ratios

Tap () icon to display the crop ratios. The following crop ratios are available:

• 16:9
• 3:2
• 4:3
• 1:1

Tap to choose any ratio to display it as an overlay in the viewfinder. This allows you to preview your photo at the desired crop ratio even before you capture it.

Trigger a delayed capture

Tap () icon to toggle timer options toolbar. You can introduce a few seconds of delay before a shot is captured. There is an option to introduce a delay of 2, 5, or 10 seconds in your capture. By default, the timer is OFF.

Capture photos in the Professional mode

• Manually control the shutter speed, ISO, and focus distance in the Pro mode
• Set White Balance

Manually control the shutter speed, ISO, and focus distance in the Pro mode

Adjust the shutter speed

Shutter speed controls the duration for which your camera is exposed to light. You can adjust this duration to achieve the desired creative effect in your photos.

For example, you can set a slow shutter speed to create motion blur or light trail effect while capturing a fast-moving subject. To freeze the movement of the same subject in your photo, you can set a fast shutter speed.

Tap () icon to adjust the shutter speed slider. Move the slider to the left for a slow shutter speed; move it to the right for a fast shutter speed.

Adjust the ISO value

ISO controls the sensitivity of your device's camera to light. 

Tap () icon to adjust the ISO slider. Move the slider to the left for low ISO values; move it to the right for high ISO values.

Adjust the focus distance of your camera

You can use this setting to increase or decrease the focus distance of your device's camera.

Tap () icon to adjust the focus distance slider. Move the slider to the left to decrease the focus distance; move it to the right to increase the focus distance.

Set white balance options

In the Professional mode, tap () icon to display the white balance options bar.

You can choose a preset white balance option from the options bar according to the lighting conditions — Automatic, Incandescent, Fluorescent, Daylight, Cloudy, or Custom.

Automatic White balance This is the default option.

Auto White Balance lock (Android) Aim the camera at a neutral colored surface to sample and lock the white balance.

Capture high-contrast scenes in the HDR mode

Use the HDR mode to capture High Dynamic Range photos using the in-app camera in Lightroom for mobile (Android).

When you trigger the capture button in the HDR mode to capture a high-contrast scene, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for mobile automatically does all the processing in the background to create a raw HDR image:  

• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for mobile analyzes your scene to determine the appropriate spread of exposure values to capture multiple exposure-bracketed images. 
• Auto aligns the exposure bracketed images to compensate for any hand movements when capturing your HDR shot.
• De-ghosts the exposure bracketed images to compensate for any moving objects like cars, people, or foliage in the captured scene.
• Auto tones the image to give you an evenly-toned merged HDR image. 
• Merges the multiple exposure images to create a 32-bit floating point DNG file — your processed raw HDR image.

This resulting raw HDR file is similar to the type of file you would get when using the HDR merge functionality within Lightroom on your desktop. For more details about HDR merge in Lightroom CC, see HDR photo merge.

The generated raw HDR files are large in size and require a lot of processing in the background as explained above. Therefore, it takes some time before your HDR images appear in the Lightroom photos view or the view grid after capturing a shot.