Adobe launches a new ‘computational photography’ camera app for iPhones

Adobe has a new account camera app for iPhone devices – and helped one of its creators, Marc Levoy, in making impressive computer imaging features that made some of the previous Pixel cameras in Google.

The new app, called Project Indigo, was released last week by Adobe Labs. It is free and available for iPhone 12 Pro, Pro Max, iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max, and all iPhone 14 and above. (Although Adobe recommends using iPhone 15 Pro or newer.) It also does not require login to an Adobe account for use.

“Instead of taking one photo, Indigo takes a set of images and collects them together to produce a high -quality image with a lower noise and a higher dynamic range,” according to the application description. Indigo is trying to produce a natural “SLR” natural search for images, and also provides a group of manual controls such as concentration, shutter speed, ISO and White Balance.

To really understand what is truly under the Cover of the Indigo engine, although I am highly recommended to read a detailed blog post from Levoi, and is now the Adobe colleague who joined the company in 2020 to build a “global camera application”, and Florian Keynes, a big world. The post covers things like the reason that smart phone cameras are good, how arithmetic photography works, how it creates the natural appearance of its photos, and some details about the image processing pipeline.

Here I must admit that I am not an expert in the camera by any way. But I even found the post interesting and information rich. The photos in the post looks great, and Adobe has an album of images that you can also browse.

In The Post, Levoy and Kainz says that Project Indigo will also be a test of technologies that may be added to other leading products, such as the Reflex Remove button. Under the line, the team plans to build things like Android version, put a picture, and even video recording.

“This is the beginning of an Adobe trip – towards an integrated mobile camera and an editorial experience that benefits from the latest developments in arithmetic photography and Amnesty International,” according to Luvoi and Keins. “Our hope is that the indigo will appeal to informal photographers of mobile phones who want the natural search that looks like their photos, including when watching the big screens; to advanced photographers who want to control manual control and the highest quality possible image; and for anyone-non-official or dangerous-enjoy playing with new photographic experiences.”