Capture photos with Lightroom for mobile (iOS)

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for mobile provides a dedicated photo capture experience where you can apply various effects on your live camera view and capture the photo. The captured photo is automatically added to your Lightroom catalog.

To directly access the Lightroom for mobile (iOS) camera:

1. From your Home screen, press and hold the Lightroom app icon to view the quick action.
2. Tap Take Photo or Take Selfie to quickly access Lightroom's in-app camera.

Create Lightroom for mobile (iOS) camera widget

Widget, when enabled for Lightroom for mobile (iOS), allows you to get instant access to Lightroom's in-app camera from your home screen or from the lock screen. You can take advantage of the professional camera features of Lightroom for mobile (iOS) camera with just a tap.

Lightroom camera widget from home screen

Follow the steps to enable the widget to instantly access Lightroom's camera from your device's home screen.

Lightroom camera widget from Lock screen

Follow the steps to enable the widget and instantly access the Lightroom camera from your device's lock screen.

Capture settings

Tap icon to display the Settings.

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.

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

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

In the camera module, tap the capture file format badge (DNG, by default) at the top of the viewfinder to switch between JPEG and DNG capture options. Choose DNG to shoot photos in Digital Negative (DNG) raw format.

DNG format is a raw file format created by Adobe. DNG files take up more storage space, but contain more image information and provide higher quality than JPG files.  

Compose shots using viewfinder overlays

Grid overlays displayed over your live capture view help you to compose the shots.

Tap () icon to toggle overlay options bar.

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 at 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.

When you shoot through any Preset, the effect applied on the photo is nondestructive in nature. You can always revert its look to a normal photo later when you edit it. For example, to revert a photo captured with a black and white preset to a normal color photo on your iPhone — open the photo in Loupe view for editing and tap/unselect the B&W option from the Color menu in the Edit panel. For details, see Adjust image color.

Set exposure compensation (while in Auto mode)

Swipe across the viewfinder screen to adjust the exposure compensation value. Swipe to the left for negative exposure values; swipe to the right for positive exposure values.

As you swipe, the Exposure Compensation reading is displayed at the top of the screen and the current value (Exp) is displayed above the capture button.

Double-tap the Exp value above the capture button to reset the exposure compensation to zero (default).

Preview last captured photo

In the camera module, tap the thumbnail at the lower-left corner to preview the last photo 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 the timer options toolbar. You can set a few seconds of delay before a shot is captured. There is an option to set a delay of 2, 5, or 10 seconds in your capture. By default, the timer is OFF.

Capture photos in the Pro mode

Adjust shutter speed, ISO, and focus distance in 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 Sec 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.

Double-tap the shutter speed icon to reset its value to Auto.

Adjust the ISO value

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

Tap ISO 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.

Double-tap the ISO icon to reset the ISO value to Auto.

Adjust the focus distance of your 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.

Double-tap the [+] icon to reset the manual focus distance to Auto.

Set exposure compensation (while in Pro mode)

Tap Exp icon to adjust the exposure compensation slider. Move the slider to the left for negative exposure values; move it to the right for positive exposure values.

Double-tap Exp icon to reset the value to zero (default value).

Auto Exposure Lock

Tap icon at the lower-right corner to to lock the in-app camera’s automatic exposure to its current setting.

Set white balance options

Tap WB icon to toggle 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.

Custom Aim the camera at a neutral colored surface to sample and lock the white balance.

Show Highlight Clipping overlay on the over-exposed areas

Tap () icon in the in-app camera options to show a highlight clipping overlay on the over-exposed areas in the live capture view. This overlay enables you to spot the over-exposed areas prior to capturing the shot and adjust the exposure or composition.  

Capture high-contrast scenes in the HDR mode

When you trigger the capture button in the High Dynamic Range (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, see Merge photos to create HDRs.

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 the HDR image appears in the Lightroom photos view or the view grid after capturing the shot.