Photoshop was a verb long before Google was, but for many photographers, Lightroom is the weapon of choice because it streamlines many common Photoshop features and combines them with file management.

Adobe's announced the Lightroom mobile app, which takes the plunge into supporting a new kind of workflow that incorporates the iPad. The app cleverly allows editing of RAW files on the go without choking up your data allowance or bandwidth.

“We know things are changing again and we wanted to offer a solution,” says Tom Hogarty, the Group Product Manager for Photography at Adobe.

Lightroom mobile is an augmentation to Lightroom on the desktop, not a replacement. While many apps let you share photos between your desktop and iPad, the main magic of Lightroom is the ability to do Camera RAW edits without downloading a giant RAW file.

Smart Previews ————–

To start, users choose to sync collections off the desktop to the app through Adobe’s servers; a feature available in the desktop version of Lightroom 5.4, also out today.

When users pull those collections up on their iPad (2nd Gen and newer), the app has a touch interface that allows them to make any of the changes users would find in the Basic panel in the desktop’s Develop module—exposure, contrast, etc. Users can also crop and there are several presets and filters. Users can’t do things like curve toning or manually apply a vignette.

Instead of trying to crunch the RAW files that exist on the desktop, Hogarty says Lightroom mobile pulls up exact replicas called “smart previews,” which are 2560 pixels on the long edge – plenty big to fill an iPad screen. Any time users make changes to the smart previews, the app communicates with the desktop—via Adobe’s servers—and the changes are applied on the desktop as well.

Smart previews are a clever solution because transferring RAW files onto the iPad, or vice versa, would be time consuming and cumbersome, especially over a wireless connection. Instead, only metadata is exchanged, which has the added benefit of applying non-destructive edits. IPads, while much faster these days, still aren’t equipped to process the enormous files coming off cameras like the Canon 5D Mark III or Nikon D800E, so this is a nice workaround.

In the app, the touch controls are smartly designed. A quick swipe lets you select images for editing, a two-finger tap reveals an image’s metadata. There’s no history screen—just a back button—but if users put three fingers on the image and hold, the app shows the original picture and they can toggle back and forth.

Image: Adobe

In Use ——

I was worried about using the app to tone an image since touch interfaces for image editing can be tricky. But the most important features in the Basic panel are controlled with a slider, so the touch interface is just as accurate, if not more, than the desktop.

Unlike other third party photo editing apps on the iPad that force users to save their changes to each image before they move on, Lightroom mobile users can be in the middle of an edit, swipe to another image, then come back and keep going; a useful tool for photographers trying to compare the edits on two similar images.

The app is just as handy with photo shot with the iPad itself. Users can import their iPad photos one by one, or automatically import every new photo taken. Instead of trying to organize their iPad images through iPhoto and then tone in another app, Lightroom mobile offers a clean and efficient one-stop shop that also shows up automatically on your desktop. This will be even more important when the app is offered for iPhones, which Hogarty says is next (Android versions will also be offered down the road).

Hogarty says Adobe is not trying to offer an option that allows users to ditch their laptops or desktops completely. Photographers have long wanted an iPad-only workflow, but this isn’t it. Mostly because dumping large amounts of huge photos on an iPad drains battery and memory (any Adobe app would have to duplicate those RAW files to edit them.

“The balance of power is still on the desktop,” Hogarty says.

Taking Over the World ———————

The most exciting part of this app might be what’s yet to come. Hogarty eluded to opening up a possible API in future versions that would allow developers to build apps on top of Lightroom. Doing that could put Adobe in the same arena as Flickr or Photoshelter.

Imagine this: You dump photos for a shoot into Lightroom and share them to a webpage for a client. The client makes their selections while you’re out and about. You can edit those selections on your iPad and let them know when you’re done. Then they just download whatever sizes they need through their web browser. The actual transfer of files is kept to a minimum.

For a long time Photoshop and Lightroom haven’t had much of a place on the internet, but this could be a big move in that direction.

“I have not doubt that there will be a lot of innovation down the road,” says Hogarty.