Results from Friday’s “Lightroom Mobile Use” Survey
Here’s the results from Friday’s one-question survey about your use of Lightroom on your mobile devices.
I’m saw some comments here, and over on my Facebook page and Twitter where some folks didn’t realize that it’s now available on Android tablets and phones, so if you didn’t realize it, it’s time to go download it and give it a whirl.
Interesting to note:
A margin of only 8% separates the “You bet!” response from “Not interested at all” crowd, which I thought was a bit surprising, until I read some of the comments here about why, which ran the gambit from “It doesn’t work on the software version of my OS” to “There’s not a Kindle version” to “It’s too small to use on phone and I don’t have a tablet.”
Another interesting stat:
overall 64% either are not using it, can’t use it, or have no plans to take advantage of it. My guess is that 29% that’s not interested would drop pretty significantly if they actually downloaded it and used it. Adobe keeps tweaking it and making it better and better, and I find myself using it more and more.
Speaking of new features…
I have one item on my “wish list” that I would love to see added, and while it doesn’t affect my usage of Lightroom mobile, it sure would make the experience better if you could drag and drop to rearrange the order of individual thumbnails on the device (instead of having to go to the desktop version of Lightroom on your computer; rearrange them there, and then those changes are updated in the mobile version). I can’t think of any photo Apps that make you go to your computer just to rearrange the order of thumbnails. This one is overdue.
Thanks to everyone who participated in the survey, and hope you all have a great Monday! (Make sure you check in tomorrow for a very handy Lightroom tip from one of our readers). 🙂
Best,
-Scott
Chouquettes sont bouffées de connecté avec la pâte à choux, dispersés avec bijou sucre . Ils peuvent être travers la graisses sein française .
The survey missed a key option.
“I want to but the key features are missing”.
I have tried every version so far, but do not use it. Personally, I give up on Adobe’s sense of priorities. Why concentrate develop facilities on a tool which cannot use a precise mouse, is not colour calibrated, undersized screen which suffers badly in sunlight and currently underpowered.
Instead, why not fill out the library features, where an Ipad can really deliver value. (Perplexed !!)
I mainly use LR mobile for viewing and showing my picked images. Viewing and editing metadata (title, description) is something that should be added in the near future. The iPad is great for this.
Another idea: my images or in LR mobile, I can view them on the iPad and on the web. Why not use LR mobile (on the web) as a portfolio tool?.
Thanks Michael. I agree with you. Awesome.
I use LR Mobile mainly as a way to show off images. My collections are made up of images that are already edited. Seems a waste to sync 600 or so images over to iPad just to go through them to pick the ones I like. I will normally do that on import.
I do love the program and having the ability to make a quick change to an image is awesome. I wish I could sync smart collections as I would prefer to use smart collections rather than normal collections. I would also love to be able to write notes onto an image in both LR and LR Mobile, being able to write things that need to be fixed etc would be so handy even better if we could overlay the image with notes similar to notes on a pdf.
P.S. I really enjoyed The Lightroom Show, when is it coming back?
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You should add another option to the next survey. I would have picked “Tried it and waiting for the next version.” I still have LR mobile installed on my old phone, but I never made real use of it so I forgot to install it on my new phone.
I can’t quite put my finger on what’s missing or why it hasn’t grabbed my attention. It’s just not good enough to use when I have the real LR on my laptop.
For me there is one glaring omission in LR Mobile. When I’m out on a shoot, I like to use my IPad to view, edit, then share with an editor, all right on site. If I shoot RAW, I can’t do this, because I cant get the images into mobile without first importing them into LR on my IMac at home. If I shoot JPegs, I can transfer them via connection kit into Camera Roll, then into LR mobile, but VERY slow. It just seems to me that if I must first import into my IMac at home, I might as well edit them there as well. Seems to me the the flow should be: camera to IPad, to LR mobile, to LR IMAC.
I was very excited about LR Mobile when it was first released and downloaded it day one. Started using it to edit photos while on vacation and found it both easy to learn and use. When I got back home, after spending hours and hours of mobile editing, I found that when I got back to my Desktop and Monitor, that the exposure between my iPad Air and Monitor were not the same. I am not a pro and there may be a way to deal with this, but I was really bummed and have not used it since. Is buying a Spyder to sync the displays the only way to fix this? (I only came across this after googling for a fix). I would use it again, if it wasn’t for this issue. (My issue at least)
I too hope they make a Kindle version as all my tablets in my home are Kindles (HD and HDX’s). Im sure Im not the only one who doesnt have a iPad or “normal” Android tablet
I agree with Michael … I’m not opposed to using the Adobe Cloud servers when needed. Like when I am working on location and need to share something from or back to my main workstation … however, my mobile devices and and my main desktop workstation spend a considerable portion of their time in very close proximity … bouncing hundreds of thousands of Smart Previews over thousands of miles of internet infrastructure simply because we can, seems like considerable waste of both my time and bandwidth when all I really want to do is move a collection or two to my phone or tablet.
The lack of a local WiFi sync option is a glaring bit of incompetence or an intentionally imposed self-serving limitation by Adobe.
Either way, the mobile version of Lightroom has plenty of ground to cover to become a much more useful option. For me, several existing iOS options for getting my images to and from my iPads to iPhone are much more pleasing to work with … and I’m not required to utilize the Adobe servers to get the job done.
I find it very disingenuous to tell the 29% that is not interested that they’d like it if they downloaded it and used it.
Do you assume that you know better how the 29% should run their workflow? I saw plenty of comments to the original post that are very legitimate reasons to not use LR Mobile. Instead of addressing those legitimate reasons—either by agreeing that something needs to be resolved, that features are missing, or the user is mistaken on how something works (or a workaround to the issue)—you simply degrade their viewpoint to a you’d-like-it-if-you-tried-it mentality.
– No RAW support (x3)
– No metadata support (key wording, titling, captioning, etc.) (x3)
– Mobile device is too small (display size, power, storage)—including comparisons to working on a 30-inch monitor, a full-blown workstation, and the full application on a laptop (x6)
– Difficulty/inability to do serious editing/developing (x2)
– LR Mobile is slow and bulky
– A generic “wasn’t happy with the constraints”
– No foreseen use besides viewing photos
– Generic “not valuable to me” (x4)
From going through the actual responses, it appears that a large majority of those that responded have either downloaded and tried it, or have analyzed the ability of the mobile app and deemed it to not be useful to their workflow. Quite the opposite of your assumption.
So, again, but with an added caveat, I request that this survey be done with non-KeblyOne employee professionals—the caveat being that they are also not Adobe evangelists. The reason being that this survey and subsequent post seems to be more of promotion for the use of the product and/or Adobe struggling to get users take benefit of something they’ve spent money on but few are utilizing (mainly because they rarely listen to their users).
Man, are you a Mr. Grumpypants or what? First, it’s not my responsibility to answer for Adobe for any of the things you don’t like about the mobile version. I love it, and use it daily, and it is my opinion that most of those folks who haven’t tried, if they did, might like it. I could be wrong, but it’s my opinion. As for me being an Adobe evangelist – I think most folks at Adobe would tell you I’m more of a whining pain in their ass (just go look at my “7-things I want to see in the next Lightroom” posts and you’ll see what I mean). I’m constantly complaining to them about things that my readers, members, and even I personally want added/fixed or addressed. I have to imagine they cringe when they see my number appear on their ringing phone. Now, as for having a survey done by a non KelbyOne employee – I think that’s a great idea — go ahead and do it. Blog it. Facebook it. However, you want to do it. If the results aren’t what you want to see (and they obviously aren’t), they go word one just the way you want it, to get the results you’re hoping to get. Lastly, freakin’ relax. It’s a software application for managing and editing photos – this isn’t used in surgical procedures. Gees!
I believe the prescription should be self-medicated—if it is just an application for managing and editing photos, then why the assumption towards users? Why the manipulation of the statistics?
Yes, manipulation. It is your opinion that many have not tried LR Mobile, but from the responses on both the original and today’s blog post, many have tried LR Mobile and have strong opinions as to why they don’t use yet. Yet, you feel that the 29% would drop significantly if they tried it. They did—that’s why they responded that way.
As to my request for a different survey: a) you’ve asked a bunch of readers on this blog—some pros, some not—and didn’t like the response. b) it wouldn’t be a fair survey to ask your in-house staff or pros who create content for KelbyOne, nor would it be fair to ask people like Terry White, who is an Adobe evangelist. c) KelbyOne is a well-respected business in the photography industry—would it not make sense for that business to conduct a survey?
In regards to your relationship with Adobe, it is well documented that KelbyOne is sponsored by Adobe, would not be in existence without the initial “nod” by Adobe to even create the business, and that you, personally, are sought by Adobe to have meetings at their headquarters. They may cringe when your phone rings, but a) they’ll answer it, because it is you, or someone from KelbyOne, and, b) they sure wouldn’t pick up the phone for the majority of the rest of us reading this blog.
I believe all this puts a onerous responsibility on you and KelbyOne to provide to take readers of this blog seriously when they respond to such surveys, not trivialize their responses or twist results into saying something that they are not saying. In fact, it is 35% (28% + 7%) that have stated that they have not tried using LR Mobile. THOSE numbers would drop significantly if they’d try it, or purchase a device to be able to try it.
You may see me as Mr. Grumpypants, but after all, it’s just your opinion.
How would it be any different if the survey was done by a non-KelbyOne employee, as far as I know Scott Kelby and KelbyOne are not owned by Adobe.
Do most/all of the staff use Adobe products ? Yes
Do they get to play on all the new Adobe products before us ? Yes ( Adobe if you fancy sending me free stuff please do 😀 )
Does it mean because that it is the greatest software out there ? No
Is LRCC Mobile the great thing since sliced bread ? No, but it does make it a whole lot easier for people that can’t take there PC’s with them
Side Note: Does anyone know what the best thing was BEFORE sliced bread ?
Previous to the greatest thing since sliced bread… I want to say toilet paper.
Unfortunately, the latest iteration of LR CC isn’t syncing with Lightroom Mobile on my Mac running OS 10.10.4 (Beta), but in the past I’ve found it isn’t that useful to me for traveling. I need it to work like Photosmith does…….shoot RAW plus jpg, work on the jpg in Lightroom Mobile and then sync to a collection on the desktop with the raw files of the same name, which is accomplished by telling it to ignore the extension. Easy Peasy and a great way to travel without a laptop. Sure wish Adobe would buy out Photosmith and use its technology to improve Lightroom Mobile.
First, I’m not a PRO. Probably not their target market, but anyway.
Even though I like the general idea behind LR Mobile, but then:
It requires CC, which is much more expensive (70Eur vs. 244Eur assuming 2 year upgrade cycle) combo than LR6 + PS CS6, which is more than good enough for me.
I don’t own iPhone or iPad and full version of LR runs nicely on Surface 3 including tablet mode.
BitTorrent Sync does nice job of synchronizing files between various devices, including Droids, Apples and Windows desktop or phone (read “everything”).
And there are plenty of ways of publishing drafts, finals, etc. to the web (a.k.a. cloud).
So, no – definitely not interested.
Not interested in using mobile to edit, but I do use it for the presentation / slideshow feature.
Besides the presentation / slideshow, I frequently forward images from the mobile (smaller file size) which is a time saver since there is no need on my part to manipulate file size further.
I don’t understand your comment on the thumbnail order, unless you mean the order of the albums. Within each album, you can sort the thumbnails in various ways in Lightroom Mobile. You don’t need your computer to do that!
You have custom sort the thumbnails, dragging and dropping (as I mentioned in the post), unless you’re in the desktop version.
I would jump on board in an instant if I could sync images without needing to use Adobe Cloud service. Simply because often my internet connection is either slow or non existent.
Combine Lightroom Mobile and Mylio service (which only needs devices to be on the same network to sync) and I think it will be a great product.