Lightroom desktop vs. Lightroom mobile – Which is better?

Do You Need A Adobe Lightroom Mobile

Photo editing is a critical function one needs, especially today with social media. Whether it is social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, all of them have a photo editing tool included. But, for photographers or hobbyists, those tools do not work to their expectations. Lightroom Mobile fulfills that purpose with the added mobility and ease of use.

The same applies to the desktop version of Lightroom, which we all love- Lightroom Classic CC. Lightroom mobile CC tries to be as functional as Lightroom Classic CC, with some added advantages. Moreover, you can have all the premium features such as selective editing, brushes, and much more with the subscription in the mobile version. You do not need the subscription for using the same functions in the Lightroom Classic CC version.

Lightroom Desktop vs. Lightroom mobile

1. Synchronization:

Because of the integration of Adobe Creative Cloud in the mobile version, there is a lot of liberty to work across different platforms and devices. You can use your cloud storage of 100 GB with the Adobe Creative Cloud to keep your changes everywhere.
Whereas, in Adobe Lightroom Classic CC, you have most of your work offline.

2. Limited Features in App:

The Lightroom Mobile app is a freemium service that unlocks important features only after buying the monthly subscription. Features such as selective editing, healing brush, geometry /perspective editing, and some online synchronization are only activated after subscribing. This is not the case with the desktop version – Lightroom Classic CC. Even features such as batch editing, are available only to premium users in the Mobile app.

3. Performance:

Lightroom Mobile only works on recent smartphones and not outdated phones such as the iPhone 5S, or several-year-old smartphones in general. You need a good processor for it to work the same as the desktop. Whether it is batch editing, brush usage, selective editing, you need a powerful processor for them to work. Apart from this basic requirement, Lightroom mobile is the perfect on-the-go app for all your editing requirements.

4. Feature Set:

The Lightroom mobile is not a watered-down version of the Lightroom Classic CC by any means. Instead, it has everything you need and has been using in the Lightroom Classic version. Whether it is the histogram information or the batch editing, you can do it all on the Lightroom mobile on your tablet or smartphone!

Conclusion:

Lightroom Classic CC is no different than the Lightroom mobile. It has the same features, same functionality and even better ease of use. Overall, you get the added advantage of mobility and ease of use in the Lightroom mobile, which might be an issue to carry your laptop everywhere for the same. You can use Lightroom mobile with more intuitive touch-based controls on tablets and smartphones.

This way you even make use of the generally better display of smartphones to really get a sense of how the colors look on the screen. But, for heavy or large collections, you may still prefer your desktop-based Lightroom Classic CC to make use of your laptop’s performance and huge storage space is taken up by RAW photos.

What’s new in Lightroom CC?

Adobe Lightroom is a powerful image editing tool that can edit your images with a variety of features. Now, there are two versions of Adobe Lightroom, namely Lightroom CC and Lightroom Classic CC. There is a considerable difference in functionality as well as overall workflow.

Between the two, Lightroom CC is the latest version. Adobe Lightroom CC is server-based, whereas Lightroom Classic CC is the one which works offline mostly, Using Adobe Creative Cloud, you can have all your work seamlessly synchronized across different platforms.

What’s new in Lightroom CC?

While some features are missing from Lightroom CC, but present in Lightroom Classic CC, there is a lot to get excited for. With new features such as Auto keyword adding, a geotagging map, a slideshow feature, you have the liberty to do more with your photos. In Lightroom CC, you can even apply presets to metadata as well as new imports. Another useful feature in Lightroom CC is the smart collections tool.

Related – Lightroom vs. Photoshop

Let’s discuss some points that set the two versions apart:

1. Image categories:

There are two views, in which your images are organized in Lightroom Classic CC. One is the virtual preview aka Collections, and a folder view. The virtual view is a collection of images as per the software’s import and other presets and settings. The folder view lets you see where your photos are present on the hard drive. On the other hand, in Lightroom CC thee is only one method of organization which is Albums. The Albums folder is a virtual categorization of photos under different names and doesn’t appear this way on the hard drive.

2. Keywords:

In both the versions, you have the option to differentiate an categorize photos by using keywords in the metadata of the file. In Lightroom Classic CC you can add structured keywords based on a hierarchy. You can manually add them and work accordingly. Whereas in the newer Lightroom CC, the Adobe AI assistant ‘Sensei’ does most of the work and organizes your images by assigning keyword as per the content of the photo. It is a great feature that works fast and lets you come back to them later.

3. Editing Tools:

The editing tools present in both versions set them apart in how they function. The Lightroom Classic CC has powerful features such as Tone Curve or Split Toe panels. These features are missing from the Lightroom CC, although some updates have changed it to some extent.

4. Panorama:

Lightroom Classic CC has its own powerful stitching panorama tool which lets you make panoramas out of overlapping frames in photos. Lightroom CC, on the other hand, doesn’t have this feature yet.

Conclusion:

There are many features and design elements that separate Lightroom Classic CC from Lightroom CC. In some ways, Classic CC has an edge over the newer version and in other vice versa. The newer version seems like a more streamlined tool to process and work faster and avoid the in-depth tools of Lightroom Classic CC. Overall, Lightroom CC is a great upgrade, but leaves something back in Lightroom Classic CC, to move forward in functionality.