This app lets you use your smartphone as an external Lightroom control panel

If you’d like to control Lightroom on your computer through your mobile device, Control Room app lets you do exactly this. Young software engineer Aaron Vizzini developed this app, and it turns your smartphone or tablet into an external control panel. This means you can sit back, control the settings on your phone or tablet, and watch them get applied to the image on your computer.

Basically, Control Room connects certain Lightroom’s management controls with the app. When you install the app on your Android or iOS device, you also need a Lighroom plugin for the app to work. Then, you can use the phone or tablet as the external control panel, and edit or manage photos in Lightroom.

Here are the current features of the Control Room app:

• Quickly and remotely make development adjustments via sliders and entry fields, all made easy by the device’s touchscreen.
• The Basic, Tones, Mixer, and Detail panels are provided.
• Create and use your own custom development panels.
• Quickly and remotely apply your own Lightroom presets to photos.
• Rate photos, add photos to a rapid collection, flag photos, label photos, and navigate between photos.
• All changes are reflected in real time between the app and Lightroom.

These are the technical requirements for the app to work:

• macOS Sierra or newer | Windows 7 or newer
• Android 4.4+ | iOS 9.3+
• Adobe Lightroom 6+ or CC

As Aaron writes on Reddit, he initially made the app for himself. However, he thought he’d make it available to the general public for a small fee, as someone else might find it useful, too. He admits it’s still not perfect, but he plans on developing it further and he takes suggestions and remarks from the users.

In the video above, he demonstrates the use of the app. As he points out, he left the Lightroom development panel open for demonstration purposes, but you can hide it when using the app.

I must admit that I quite like this idea. I don’t know if it could speed up the workflow, it depends on the user. But it seems like it can make it more comfortable. I plan to try it out and see what it does for me. If you’re interested, you can purchase the app for $4 from iTunes or Google Play Store. Don’t forget to install the free plugin, and you can find it on the Control Room app’s website.

[via Reddit]