I've been using Adobe Lightroom mobile for a few years as my main photo editing app on iPhone and iPad. Many people understandably hesitate to subscribe to Lightroom Mobile.

In this review, I'll highlight why I subscribed and what you get when you subscribe to a Create Cloud photography plan that includes Lightroom Mobile. You will be surprised: you'll get more than just the app.

Table of Contents

Context of this Review
- The History of Lightroom Mobile
Lightroom Mobile vs. Lightroom CC Desktop
The Lightroom Mobile Premium Subscription
10 reasons to use Adobe Lightroom Mobile
The Lightroom user interface: A quick look
- Editing Mode
Adobe Lightroom Mobile Tips and Tricks
The Verdict: Is Lightroom Mobile Premium worth it?

Setting the context for this review

Before turning to iPhone photography I used a MacBook and Apple Aperture to edit my photos. Aperture was a desktop software quite similar to Adobe Lightroom.

But when I turned to iPhone photography, neither Lightroom nor Aperture existed on iPhone. So I tried to find photo editing apps that would enable me to edit my travel photos in ways I was used to. So, for years, I had a toolkit of half a dozen apps that I used to edit my photo on my iPhone and iPad.

But with iOS10, Apple introduced support for the RAW format on iPhone and I started to look for an app that supported it - and I tried Lightroom mobile. It worked great for RAW photos and even for JPEG and HEIC photos. After doing some research, I subscribed.

As of 2022, I'm using Lightroom Mobile on my iPhone 13 Pro Max, an iPad Mini 6, and an iPad Air 5. Previously, I also used it on an iPad Pro.

As of June 2022, there are two distinct Lightroom Apps in the App Store: One for iPhone and one for iPad. You can use both of them with a single Lightroom Mobile Premium subscription.

The History of Lightroom Mobile

Adobe released Lightroom Mobile in 2017. Back then, Lightroom Mobile was already capable of syncing edits in a non-destructive way with the desktop version of Lightroom CC.

Since then, Adobe has continuously improved Lightroom Mobile by releasing an iPhone version, adding more and more features from the desktop version of Lightroom to its mobile counterpart, and even introducing new features.

Adobe also added several additional apps and services that you can use with a Lightroom Mobile premium subscription or the Adobe Photography plan.

And because of the features, the ease of use of Lightroom mobile, and the additional premium apps and services, I finally subscribed. Since then, Adobe has added new features, apps, and services each year.

Lightroom Mobile vs. Lightroom CC Desktop

If you're familiar with Lightroom CC on the desktop, you'll still find a few differences between the desktop and mobile versions. As of June 2022, the following notable features are only available on Lightroom CC on the desktop:

Merging multiple photos to an HDR. This would perfectly supplement the exposure bracketing feature of ProCamera App. I hope to see this feature soon on Lightroom Mobile!
Merging multiple photos into a panorama. Since Google purchased Autostitch Panorama app, I'm still looking for an alternative.
Creating a stack of multiple photos would help to reduce clutter.

But other than that, I haven't discovered any major feature from Lightroom desktop that I'd miss in Lightroom mobile on iPhone or iPad.

The Lightroom Mobile Premium Subscription

There are several ways to subscribe to Lightroom Mobile Premium. You can subscribe either through in-app purchases in the Lightroom Mobile app using App Store subscriptions or via the Adobe website - which I did. Because otherwise, you won't get all the extras. They are only included in the Adobe CC Photography plan available on the Adobe website because they require an Adobe ID.

What's included in Lightroom Mobile Premium?

If you subscribe to Lightroom Mobile premium on the Adobe Website, you'll get all the premium features of Lightroom mobile. In the following table, you'll see a comparison of all the significant features and whether they're premium features.

Feature	Lightroom Free?	Lightroom Premium?
Exposure adjustment	Yes	Yes
Contrast adjustment	Yes	Yes
Highlights adjustment	Yes	Yes
Shadows adjustment	Yes	Yes
Blackpoint adjustment	Yes	Yes
Color Temperatur	Yes	Yes
Color Tone	Yes	Yes
Color Dynamic	Yes	Yes
Saturation adjustment	Yes	Yes
Texture adjustment	Yes	Yes
Clarity adjustment	Yes	Yes
Remove Haze	Yes	Yes
Vignette	Yes	Yes
Denise	Yes	Yes
Sharpen	Yes	Yes
Add Grain	Yes	Yes
Cropping	Yes	Yes
Black and White	Yes	Yes
Healing Brush	-	Yes
Masks (Selective Adjustments)	-	Yes
Perspective Correction	-	Yes
Edit DSLR RAW Files	-	Yes
Batch Editing	-	Yes
Syncing Presets	-	Yes
100s of free Presets	-	Yes
Syncing edits between devices	-	Yes
Web Galleries	-	Yes
Sensei Search	-	Yes
People View	-	Yes
Adobe Photoshop Express	-	Yes
Adobe Rush	-	Yes
Free portfolio website	-	Yes
Lightroom for the web	-	Yes
Use Adobe Express	-	Yes
1000s of Fonts for free	-	Yes

Now let's have a look at some of the Lightroom mobile premium editing features in more detail.

Adobe Lightroom Mobile Premium features

Edit DSLR-RAW Files: You can import, open and develop RAW files from your DSLR.
Selective Adjustments: Use masks to apply adjustments to only a part of your photo. In 2021, Adobe updated masks with really cool features: Lightroom Mobile can automatically detect the sky and main subject and create the mask for you. Moreover, you can mask areas of the same color or luminance range. And finally, you can add or subtract areas from a mask

Presets: Sync your existing Lightroom CC desktop presets to Lightroom Mobile and even create your own on iPhone or iPad that will sync back to the desktop version.
Included Premium Presets: The subscription includes hundreds of premium presets like cinematic presets or portrait presets. Lightroom will even suggest a preset for your photo if you want:

Free Presets in Lightroom Mobile Premium

Healing Brush: Fix imperfections using the healing brush or clone stamp tool.
Perspective Correction. Apply geometric and perspective corrections. I use that a lot, especially when shooting architecture.

Geometric corrections in Lightroom Mobile

Synchronisation: Your photos and edits will automatically sync between Lightroom on iPhone/iPad, Lightroom Web Edition, and Lightroom on the Desktop. Note that the subscription plan includes the desktop version of Lightroom CC.
Web Galleries: Create Web Galleries from Lightroom Mobile. See a sample Adobe Web gallery I've created.
Sensei Search: An AI-based search that automatically detects what's in a photo and allows you to search for it. A huge time saver because you don't have to tag everything manually.
Batch Editing: With this feature, you can easily apply the same adjustments to multiple images by copying and pasting adjustments to multiple photos.
People view
Lightroom Web Edition: You can use Lightroom Web Edition for free. That's a browser based version of Lightroom:

In addition to the above premium editing features, you get the following extras:

Up to 5 portfolio websites for free on myportfolio.com:For each portfolio website, you can use your domain and get Google Search Console and Google Analytics integration. Add some text and sync any Lightroom Album to create a portfolio website.
Free use of Adobe Express.: That's an exciting alternative to Canva and allows you to quickly create social media posts from your Lightroom or Photoshop assets.
Free use of Adobe Photoshop Express: A photo editing app for quick photo edits with several cool features. I especially like the auto masking feature of the main subject.
Free use of Adobe Fonts for your website: You can even install them on your iPhone and iPad using the Creative Cloud app.
Creative Cloud Storage: Creative Cloud Storage is necessary to sync your photo and edits across different devices.
Adobe Rush for desktop and mobile: Adobe Rush is an iMovie like video editing app that allows you to create create videos quickly

I think this illustrates why I chose to subscribe to Adobe Lightroom Premium.

As of 2022 and in addition to the free version, Adobe offers a 7 day trial for the premium features. So, you may want to check the current offerings for Lightroom Mobile Premium on Adobe.com

How much does Adobe Lightroom Mobile Premium cost?

Adobe offers a few different plans for photographers. The cheapest one is the Lightroom mobile-only plan for desktop & mobile with 1 TB of cloud storage for $9.99. As an alternative, you can get Lightroom CC for desktop and mobile & Photoshop CC for desktop and iPad for $11.99, but that plan contains only 20 GB of Creative Cloud storage.

To help you decide if a Lightroom mobile subscription is worth it, take a look at the following calculation I did (for myself; your mileage may vary):

Originally, Adobe Lightroom costed $179 if you bought the full license.
New releases, so-called Updates, came out about every 18 months and were priced at $49.

So over three years, the total cost of ownership for Lightroom for buying the full license plus two updates would have been $277.

But with a Creative Cloud subscription, you'll also get a portfolio website, online storage to sync photos between the desktop and mobile version, Adobe Express for quickly creating beautiful web and social media graphics, Adobe Rush, plus a nearly endless supply of Fonts.

I did a bit of market research before I subscribed and found the following prices for similar tools:

A photo portfolio website costs around $50 per year.
1 TB of cloud storage is around $5 per month or about $50 per year (if paid yearly).
A tool for creating web and social media graphics is around $10 per month or $100 if paid yearly.

I didn't include the fonts here because you can get tons of fonts for free from Google, too, and I didn't include Adobe Rush because Apple users can get iMovie for free.

So for three years with the old pricing model, the cost for Lightroom, including two upgrades, a portfolio website, design software for social media graphics, and 1 TB of cloud storage, would sum up to $967.

Now compare the $967 from the old pricing model with the Lightroom photography plan, that's $9.99 per month. For three years, that's $360 ($10 x 36 months) compared to $967, as mentioned above.

Even if you ignore the cost of the original Lightroom pricing model and just sum the price for a portfolio website, 1 TB of cloud storage, and the cost of design software for social media graphics, this would be $600 for three years. Lightroom mobile premium with all the extras is just $360 for three years.

That sounded like a deal, and that was one of the reasons I subscribed and canceled my portfolio website hosting, plus the design app I used to create social media graphics.

Note that when Adobe released Photoshop for iPad, I switched to the photography plan that contains Lightroom, Photoshop, 20 GB of storage, and all the other extras.

Even for the photography plan that includes Lightroom and Photoshop, you can do a similar calculation. A one-time license of Photoshop CS6 would have set you back $699 alone!

Head to the Adobe website to compare the Lightroom only and Photography plans, that include Lightroom for desktop and mobile and Photoshop for desktop and iPad.

Is there a free Version of Adobe Lightroom Mobile?

As I've highlighted in the above table, there is a free version of Lightroom Mobile that you can use without paying a fee. But if you want to use the premium features or take advantage of the other benefits, you need to purchase a Lightroom mobile premium subscription.

10 reasons to use Adobe Lightroom Mobile

Since I started using Adobe Lightroom Mobile premium, it has made my life as an iPhone photographer so much easier in so many ways. Here are the top 10 reasons why I have subscribed to Adobe lightroom mobile premium and use it as my main photo editing app on iPhone and iPad:

Lightroom Mobile supports non-destructive editing.
So you can always undo each single or all edits on any device, at any time, even after you closed and re-opened Lightroom. The new version feature in Lightroom makes cross-device editing even more convenient.
It supports selective adjustments.
This feature allows you to apply adjustments to only a part of your photo. I need and use this a lot, and it's convenient to use with Apple Pencil on an iPad. This is a feature I missed in a lot of other iPhone photo editing apps I tried.
It properly handles metadata.
This is where many apps failed in the past, and some still do. Plus, you can add keywords and copyright info as metadata to your photos.
With Lightroom Mobile, you can create and apply presets.
If you have added your favorite presets in Lightroom Desktop, they will automatically sync to the mobile version, and you can even create your own right on your iPhone or iPad.
You can create web albums.
Share them with friends, clients, or cooperation partners right from Lightroom Mobile. You can even protect a web album with a password.
You get a web version of Lightroom CC.
This way, you can access and use your Lightroom photos from any computer anywhere in the world. The feature list of the web version is pretty impressive.
It syncs photos and edits.
You can start editing a photo on the iPhone and continue where you stopped on the iPad. And the other way round.
Sync Lightroom Albums with a portfolio website.
Up to 5 free portfolio websites are included in the Lightroom CC plan if you subscribe. My previous portfolio website cost was $50 per year alone.
It has an intuitive User Interface.
Adobe has an Apple TV and Fire TV Lightroom App that you can use to present your edited masterpieces on the big screen. You'll find your photos in these apps in the same folders and albums that you've created in Lightroom Mobile.

Adobe Lightroom User Interface

When you open Lightroom Mobile for the first time, you'll see the home screen. In the top left corner are three buttons:

Home Screen. Displays the most recent photos and a list of tutorials you can watch.
Library view. This is where all your photos are
People. To find and group people in your photos.

We're looking for the library view. It's the place where all your imported photos are stored. It contains all folders and albums you have created. At the top of the list are four albums that Lightroom already created for you. Most important is the All Photos album, where you'll find all your imported photos.

Lightroom Mobile offers two ways to import photos: Either use the built-in Lightroom Camera to take a photo or import a photo from the camera roll. To import multiple images in one batch, swipe over each to select it.

Both options are in the blue toolbar in the bottom right corner of the screen.

Once you've imported a photo, it will be added All Photos album. To begin editing a photo, tap on it.

Note the mode selector in the upper left corner after you've tapped a photo to edit it. Here, you select what you want to do:

Edit puts you into editing / developing mode. Now you can adjust and edit your photo.
Rate & Review allows you to assign a star rating as well as setting the accepted or rejected flag.
Activity will display all comments from a shared web-album for this photo.
Under Keywords you can manually assign multiple keywords to a photo.
In Info you're able to enter a title and description as well as copyright info; plus, you'll see some important metadata about your photo.

Editing Mode in Adobe Lightroom Mobile

Editing Mode is what we're looking for. Now we can adjust and tune our photos. Once you've switched to editing mode, note the toolbar at the bottom of the screen. Here are all the different editing sliders grouped by topic. Adobe calls those adjustment groups. To open one of the groups, and adjust the corresponding settings, tap one of the groups.

Then a drawer will pop up, which contains all the adjustment sliders. Swipe up inside the drawer to see all the sliders available for that group.

The available adjustment groups in Adobe Lightroom Mobile are:

Selective Adjustments
Crop
Profiles
Light
Color
Effect
Detail
Geometry
Optics
Presets

Adobe Lightroom Mobile Tips and Tricks

And finally, here are some valuable tips and tricks for working with Lightroom Mobile that I discovered. I guess I should RTFM more often.

When using any slider, tap on the left (label) of the slider to decrease the slider by -5. Tap the value on the right of the slider to increase the value by +5
Double-tap on any slider to reset it to its default value.
Adobe Lightroom can mark clipping areas! In the lights editing group, tap and hold either the exposure, shadows, highlights, blacks, or whites slider and use a second finger to tap the image itself. Lightroom will display white clipping in red and black clipping in blue. Adjust the slider for better results while keeping the slider and photo tapped.
To avoid over-sharpening your images, Lightroom Mobile can display a sharpening mask. In the detail editing group, tap and hold the sharpening, radius, detail, or masking slider and use a second finger to tap the image itself. There's your sharpening mask.

The verdict: Is Lightroom Mobile Premium worth it?

As I've mentioned at the beginning of this article, Adobe Lightroom Mobile is my main app for editing photos on iPhone and iPad on the go. In addition to all the premium features in Lightroom Mobile, you get additional extras that alone are worth the money.

Moreover, since I subscribed, Adobe added new features to Lightroom Mobile once or twice a year without increasing the price.

So, if you just need a few filters to edit your photos, Adobe Lightroom Mobile may be a bit inflated for you.

But if you want to edit your photos professionally, efficiently, and conveniently, I'd recommend looking at a Lightroom Mobile Premium Subscription.

Adobe Lightroom Mobile Premium - what's included in a subscription. A review