Adobe has recently launched a new “computational photography” camera app for iPhones, called Project Indigo. This app, developed by Adobe Labs, aims to bring DSLR-like quality and professional controls to smartphone photography, leveraging advanced computational imaging techniques.
A significant aspect of Project Indigo is the involvement of Marc Levoy, who previously played a pivotal role in developing the groundbreaking computational photography features for Google’s Pixel phones. Levoy, now an Adobe Fellow, worked alongside senior scientist Florian Kainz on this project, bringing their expertise to Adobe’s mobile camera endeavors.
Project Indigo addresses common complaints about standard smartphone photos, such as being overly bright, having low contrast, high color saturation, and excessive smoothing or sharpening. The app’s core aim is to produce a more “natural, SLR-like” look by employing subtle, globally tuned image processing rather than aggressive enhancements. It seeks to bridge the gap between casual mobile shooters and advanced photographers.
The app’s primary innovation lies in its computational photography pipeline. Instead of capturing a single image, Project Indigo captures a burst of up to 32 underexposed frames per shot. These frames are then computationally aligned and merged to produce a final image.
By combining multiple underexposed frames, the app can reduce random noise often present in low-light smartphone photos. The multi-frame approach helps preserve details in both highlights and shadows, leading to a richer dynamic range.
Key Features:
Project Indigo offers comprehensive manual controls similar to a professional DSLR camera, including Focus (with manual override), Shutter speed, ISO, Exposure compensation, and Control over the number of frames captured per burst.
The app currently features two main modes; “Photo” for everyday use in good lighting (with zero shutter lag) and “Night” mode for low-light conditions, which uses longer exposure times and captures more frames for superior noise reduction.
RAW (DNG) Support:
Crucially, Project Indigo applies its computational benefits to both JPEG and RAW (DNG) formats. This is a significant advantage, as many smartphone camera apps only apply computational enhancements to JPEGs. The DNG files produced are smaller than Apple’s ProRAW files while retaining high quality.
Multi-frame Super-resolution:
For digital zoom, Project Indigo employs multi-frame super-resolution. By capturing multiple slightly offset frames (leveraging natural hand movement), it reconstructs a sharper image with more detail, avoiding the “AI hallucinations” sometimes seen in other digital zoom implementations.
Reflection Removal (Technology Preview):
The app includes experimental features, with one notable example being an AI-powered “Remove Reflections” tool, which can clean up photos taken through windows or glass. This is considered a “technology preview,” indicating ongoing development.
Lightroom Integration:
As an Adobe product, Project Indigo is designed to integrate seamlessly with Adobe’s photography ecosystem, particularly Lightroom Mobile. Users can export images directly to Lightroom for further editing, with the app even embedding SDR and HDR “looks” as profiles for easy toggling.
Project Indigo is available as a free download on the Apple App Store. It does not require an Adobe account for use, making it easily accessible.
It’s compatible with iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max, iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max, and all models launched afterwards (including base models).
Adobe has indicated plans to develop an Android version of the app and to introduce additional features like portrait mode, panorama, video capture, exposure bracketing, and focus bracketing.
