Photographing Your Artwork with Your Phone Camera: Getting Started with Lightroom Mobile

This is the first in a continuing series of articles on photographing your artwork with your phone camera, based on the introduction published in the EACA newsletter.

If you've ever tried photographing your own artwork with your phone's built-in camera app and felt like something was just a little off — colors not quite right, edges distorted, image softer than expected — the problem probably isn't your phone. Phone cameras are capable of producing professional quality artwork photos. The issue is that the built-in camera app doesn't give you enough control.

That's where Lightroom Mobile comes in.

What is Lightroom Mobile?

Lightroom Mobile (referred to throughout this series as LrM) is a free app from Adobe — the same company that makes Photoshop. It's available for iPhone and Android and gives you professional-level control over how you shoot and edit your photos, all from your phone.

You don't need an Adobe subscription to use the basic features covered in this series. Download it free from the App Store and you're ready to go.

The Home Screen

When you open LrM you'll see two sections on the home screen:

Device shows all the photos on your phone — everything in your camera roll.

Lightroom shows only images you've taken with the LrM camera or imported into LrM, and gives you access to the LrM camera.

For artwork photography you'll be working primarily in the Lightroom section, shooting with the LrM camera so your images are organized separately from your everyday phone photos.

Accessing the Camera

From the Lightroom section of the home screen, tap the camera icon in the lower right to open the LrM camera. To exit the camera without taking a photo, tap the X in the upper left corner.

Auto vs Pro Mode

The LrM camera offers two shooting modes — Auto and Pro. You'll see these options at the bottom right of the camera screen.

Auto mode is the simpler of the two. You tap the screen to set your exposure point, tap and hold to lock it, and tap elsewhere to set focus. It only shoots JPG files and gives you no control over shutter speed — but if you're shooting on a tripod, which is highly recommended, the lack of shutter speed control doesn't matter much. One limitation worth noting: there's no indicator showing exactly what's in focus in Auto mode.

Pro mode is where LrM really shines for artwork photography. It gives you complete control over all camera settings — white balance, shutter speed, ISO, and file format. It also unlocks two invaluable tools: focus peaking, which highlights in green exactly what's in sharp focus, and the ability to shoot DNG (RAW) files for maximum editing flexibility. We'll cover all of these in depth in the next article.

A Note on Special Effects

You may notice a Special Effects option in the LrM camera. Avoid it for artwork photography — these effects alter your image in ways that compromise color accuracy, which is the opposite of what you want.

Why Not Just Use the Built-in Camera App?

Your phone's built-in camera is excellent for everyday photography, but for artwork it has some significant limitations. Auto white balance can be fooled by dominant colors in your artwork — a painting with a lot of red or blue can cause the camera to shift the color balance to compensate, giving you an inaccurate result. You also have limited control over exposure and no focus peaking to confirm sharpness.

LrM solves all of these problems, and once you're familiar with it the workflow is straightforward. In the next article we'll go through the camera settings in detail — aspect ratio, timer, grid, highlight clipping, and the difference between Auto and Pro white balance.

Virginia Brodie is an Eldorado photographer who photographs artwork for artists and enjoys creating abstract images. A longtime Adobe Certified Instructor, she also offers classes on photographing artwork. She can be reached at vartworkphoto@gmail.com.