Adobe Shows Off Lightroom-Style Photo Editing for iPad

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

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.

Popular Stories

iOS 26

iOS 26.2 Coming Soon With These 8 New Features on Your iPhone

Thursday December 11, 2025 8:49 am PST by
Apple seeded the second iOS 26.2 Release Candidate to developers earlier this week, meaning the update will be released to the general public very soon. Apple confirmed iOS 26.2 would be released in December, but it did not provide a specific date. We expect the update to be released by early next week. iOS 26.2 includes a handful of new features and changes on the iPhone, such as a new...
AirPods Pro Firmware Feature

Apple Releases New Firmware for AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods Pro 3

Thursday December 11, 2025 11:28 am PST by
Apple today released new firmware designed for the AirPods Pro 3 and the prior-generation AirPods Pro 2. The AirPods Pro 3 firmware is 8B30, up from 8B25, while the AirPods Pro 2 firmware is 8B28, up from 8B21. There's no word on what's include in the updated firmware, but the AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods Pro 3 are getting expanded support for Live Translation in the European Union in iOS...
iOS 26

iOS 26.4 and iOS 27 Features Revealed in New Leak

Friday December 12, 2025 10:56 am PST by
Macworld's Filipe Espósito today revealed a handful of features that Apple is allegedly planning for iOS 26.4, iOS 27, and even iOS 28. The report said the features are referenced within the code for a leaked internal build of iOS 26 that is not meant to be seen by the public. However, it appears that Espósito and/or his sources managed to gain access to it, providing us with a sneak peek...
Google maps feaure

Google Maps Quietly Added This Long-Overdue Feature for Drivers

Wednesday December 10, 2025 2:52 am PST by
Google Maps on iOS quietly gained a new feature recently that automatically recognizes where you've parked your vehicle and saves the location for you. Announced on LinkedIn by Rio Akasaka, Google Maps' senior product manager, the new feature auto-detects your parked location even if you don't use the parking pin function, saves it for up to 48 hours, and then automatically removes it once...
iOS 26

Apple Releases iOS 26.2 With Alarms for Reminders, Lock Screen Changes, Enhanced Safety Alerts and More

Friday December 12, 2025 10:10 am PST by
Apple today released iOS 26.2, the second major update to the iOS 26 operating system that came out in September, iOS 26.2 comes a little over a month after iOS 26.1 launched. ‌iOS 26‌.2 is compatible with the ‌iPhone‌ 11 series and later, as well as the second-generation ‌iPhone‌ SE. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones over-the-air by going to Settings >...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature 1

Apple to Make More Foldable iPhones Than Expected [Updated]

Tuesday December 9, 2025 9:59 am PST by
Apple has ordered 22 million OLED panels from Samsung Display for the first foldable iPhone, signaling a significantly larger production target than the display industry had previously anticipated, ET News reports. In the now-seemingly deleted report, ET News claimed that Samsung plans to mass-produce 11 million inward-folding OLED displays for Apple next year, as well as 11 million...
AirTag 2 Mock Feature

Apple AirTag 2: Four New Features Found in iOS 26 Code

Thursday December 11, 2025 10:31 am PST by
The AirTag 2 will include a handful of new features that will improve tracking capabilities, according to a new report from Macworld. The site says that it was able to access an internal build of iOS 26, which includes references to multiple unreleased products. Here's what's supposedly coming: An improved pairing process, though no details were provided. AirTag pairing is already...
iOS 26

15 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 26.2

Friday December 5, 2025 9:40 am PST by
Apple is about to release iOS 26.2, the second major point update for iPhones since iOS 26 was rolled out in September, and there are at least 15 notable changes and improvements worth checking out. We've rounded them up below. Apple is expected to roll out iOS 26.2 to compatible devices sometime between December 8 and December 16. When the update drops, you can check Apple's servers for the ...
macOS Tahoe 26 Thumb

Apple Releases macOS Tahoe 26.2 With Edge Light

Friday December 12, 2025 10:08 am PST by
Apple today released macOS Tahoe 26.2, the second major update to the macOS Tahoe operating system that came out in September. macOS Tahoe 26.2 comes five weeks after Apple released macOS Tahoe 26.1. Mac users can download the macOS Tahoe update by using the Software Update section of System Settings. macOS Tahoe 26.2 includes Edge Light, a feature that illuminates your face with soft...

Top Rated Comments

MattJessop Avatar
165 months ago
I hope this isn't what deforstallization looks like...

"Icons were too flashy, so we flattened them out and just put text.... pure text.."
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ThunderSkunk Avatar
165 months ago
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.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AQUADock Avatar
165 months ago
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?
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DJsteveSD Avatar
165 months ago
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.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Mr. Retrofire Avatar
165 months ago
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.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Small White Car Avatar
165 months ago
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.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)