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Rikk Flohr_Photography
Community Manager
Rikk Flohr_PhotographyCommunity Manager
Community Manager
May 23, 2025
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P: Introducing the Project Indigo camera app

  • May 23, 2025
  • 361 replies
  • 232965 views

This post applies to the Project Indigo iOS camera app. 

 

Adobe Labs is excited to share an early look at Project Indigo, an iPhone camera app we've started to develop, to get feedback from the photography community. The app offers full manual controls, a more natural ("SLR-like") look, and high image quality in both JPEG and raw formats. It also introduces some new photographic experiences not available in other camera apps. For more information on the underlying technology, please refer to this Project Indigo blog post.

 

Before you start with Project Indigo 

  • We recommend using Project Indigo on iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Max or newer devices.
    (Also supported are 12 Pro/Pro Max, 13 Pro/Pro Max, and all 14-series devices.)
  • You should have at least 1GB of storage space left for the app, the downloadable AI Models inside the app, and for captured photos. 

 

Recipes for success when using Project Indigo 

To get the maximum out of your images captured with the app, follow these guidelines: 

  • When reviewing the results, focus on Project Indigo's more natural look (in both SDR and HDR). If you haven’t done this before, try viewing the images on your laptop or desktop device, preferably on an HDR screen. 
  • Capture with both JPEG and raw DNGs with file saving enabled. Project Indigo produces computational photography DNG files, which have the same natural look as JPEG images, but much more latitude for editing after capture. 
  • Take control of the camera with the built-in Pro Controls, including controls that are exclusive to a computational camera: Frames to Merge and Merge Method. These may be intimidating for beginners, but with Project Indigo, you can try them for free, and nothing will break—you can always reset the settings to ‘Auto’ and let the camera take back control. 
  • Go to the Indigo Labs page and play with the latest innovations our team can offer. These are only available on mobile via Indigo! 
  • Be patient! Project Indigo is doing a lot of heavy lifting under the hood, and it will reward you with great photos. In return, it may ask you for a bit of time to set up captures when needed, and to wait a few seconds for the image processing to finish. 

 

Sending feedback 

Please try the app and share feedback in this community forum thread. If you report a problem you encountered, it would help to include details like which device you are running Project Indigo on, what kind of scene you were trying to capture, what you were trying to achieve with the camera, and as much information as possible about what you like or do not like about the resulting photo quality. Our team will continually monitor this thread to track issues and improve future experiences.  

 

To improve the performance and results of Project Indigo, it is important that examples of images that do not meet your expectations are forwarded to the team via your report.  A large variety of file formats are allowed as attachments in these forum posts. The best option is to attach your image's raw file directly to your feedback post. Note that there is a 50 MB limit on an attachment's file size. If your raw file is too large to attach, the best option is to share the file via a file-sharing service (Dropbox or similar) and then share the link in your feedback post. Thank you for continuing to provide feedback on the Project Indigo camera! 

 

Boris Ajdin: Product Manager, NextCam 
 
Posted by: 

 

      361 replies

      Show previous replies
      N
      nhan_8084
      Participating Frequently
      August 9, 2025

      @BorisTheBlade  I took a pic of the moon tonight using 10x, the raw is here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/jz87go1xkgpwx4k6laapz/IMG_9420.dng?rlkey=ce5o4b5p1gtsi3vfly1qofjp7&st=xtqupcb8&dl=0

       

      Editing it in lightroom mobile gave amazing results but when I export as jpeg it looks SUPER DARK!

      N
      nhan_8084
      Participating Frequently
      August 9, 2025

      So I had to chose adobe standard, disable hdr editing, then it finally processed correctly.  This is OUTSTANDING quality at 10x!  I can't wait to see how Indigo performed when the periscope gets to 48mp sensor.  The shot was done using manual mode to focus the moon.

      N
      nhan_8084
      Participating Frequently
      August 9, 2025

       

      @BorisTheBlade I have taken some more shots to give you and your team some ideas.  This time it is outdoor, a mix of direct sun and indirect sun.  All are fully processed of highlights, shadows, noise and sharpening etc.  The direct sun ones are extremely challenging so I processed it to what I believe the average consumers will like vs the SOOC.

       

      Daytime raws: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/1ybya8qud169kr7pj0s5t/AGSatHgZY7J28SU-hVGpDrI?rlkey=2ilhp8vwzlcm3k6kb2zycuif4&st=f1pli171&dl=0

       

      Day Images Processed: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/b94f97t9oilxu7lav20kt/AHlm53ObI3hhh59LTS2mG1M?rlkey=z3tqmfiqcodqoeema20x12vdm&st=lqr1gw7n&dl=0

       

      I will attach the SOOC here and the faults seen in the raws.

      N
      nhan_8084
      Participating Frequently
      August 8, 2025

      @BorisTheBlade So I have some times to do what you asked earlier, and that is to process the Indigo raws to give you and your team a sense of how I want the jpegs to look SOOC.  All these are indoor shots which to me is more critical in terms of how to approach noise and sharpening.  I did not touch much in terms of exposure/shadows so do not pay attention much to it.  Noise reduction and sharpness is what I am mainly showing.

       

      The ultrawide angle is the worst lens of the three on my 15 pro max, so it is the one expected to have the most noise when compared to the other two, especially with medium to low current indoor lighting at my work place.  The raws and processed jpegs will be inside the dropbox folders, while the SOOCC Indigo Jpegs will be attached here.  I will also attached the issues see in raws (uwa attached but all the raws seems to have jagged edges badly!) with the jagged edges as mentioned before too.  

       

      Indigo Raws: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/37nvkghxnux0ibln1hqbs/AHyZ1XYwXvuqu0rP6-WOgRI?rlkey=h5zoxct3r32tbzdp9454mosg3&st=5kwvt98i&dl=0

       

      Processed jpegs: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/tzusimf16xkple4ka45uo/AKsCeOrT4C8_5EpYHEHIhh0?rlkey=z81uov1cat0wjqs2mpggp3rbn&st=oxshy8a5&dl=0

        A
        Astrodon
        Participant
        August 8, 2025

        1. I was able to take 1s exposures of the night sky merged with differing number of frames. Impressive in terms of detail and noise! However, when I look at the "information" pop-up, it shows the 1s exposure, but it does not show how many frames were merged.  I think this is critical information.  

        2. Star trails.  With my big cameras, I get great results by combining 40-50 30s exposures in post processing in LR/PS or StarStax.  Is there an intervelometer-type function in or planned to be in Indigo that would allow for automatic repetition of a 30 frame capture?  Doing it manually is problematic. 

        B
        Adobe Employee
        BorisTheBlade
        Adobe Employee
        August 8, 2025
        quote

        1. I was able to take 1s exposures of the night sky merged with differing number of frames. Impressive in terms of detail and noise! However, when I look at the "information" pop-up, it shows the 1s exposure, but it does not show how many frames were merged.  I think this is critical information.  

        2. Star trails.  With my big cameras, I get great results by combining 40-50 30s exposures in post processing in LR/PS or StarStax.  Is there an intervelometer-type function in or planned to be in Indigo that would allow for automatic repetition of a 30 frame capture?  Doing it manually is problematic. 


        By @Astrodon

        Thank you for providing these suggestions. We are working on improving the Long Exposure captures overall, and will be rolling those updates out in upcoming releases. For astrophotography, it requires special processing in different modes (e.g., making star trails vs keeping stars static), which is also on the roadmap. Please stay tuned.

        E
        Eli Johanson
        Participating Frequently
        August 7, 2025

        Hi. Will the next update remove the continuous shutter sound on Japanese and Korean iPhone models?

        B
        Adobe Employee
        BorisTheBlade
        Adobe Employee
        August 7, 2025
        quote

        Hi. Will the next update remove the continuous shutter sound on Japanese and Korean iPhone models?


        By @Eli Johanson

        Hi Eli - thanks for reaching out. We are working with Apple on this, but unfortunately cannot share the exact timeline for when a solution may be available. Thank you for the patience, and please stay tuned.

        jimf16377877
        jimf16377877
        Known Participant
        August 6, 2025

        Would it be possible to make the file names generated for the images in some way sequential, as they are in a "regular" camera? I know the date is in the metadata, and so they can be sorted by date, but that info isn't always readily displayed (such as in columns of Finder on Mac). The seemingly random letters that change with each image just look confusing, and having Bridge rename them adds an extra step to workflow. Thanks for your work on this app!

          B
          Adobe Employee
          BorisTheBlade
          Adobe Employee
          August 6, 2025

          Hello Jim - how are you transferring the images to your computer, and which OS are you using? We know that Windows does this, since it uses PTP/MTP for image transfer, and those protocols are limited to 8 characters for file name + 3 for the extension. If you are encountering this on the Mac, we'd like the know your workflow so we can see if there is a way to address this. Thank you for helping us improve Project Indigo.

          quote

          Would it be possible to make the file names generated for the images in some way sequential, as they are in a "regular" camera? I know the date is in the metadata, and so they can be sorted by date, but that info isn't always readily displayed (such as in columns of Finder on Mac). The seemingly random letters that change with each image just look confusing, and having Bridge rename them adds an extra step to workflow. Thanks for your work on this app!


          By @jimf16377877

           

          jimf16377877
          jimf16377877
          Known Participant
          August 7, 2025

          Hi Boris - I'm on a mac running OS 15.6 with Bridge 2025 (15.1.0.635) My iphone is a 16 pro. I use 'Import from Device' to connect to my phone and the file names appear in that window and then transfer to the computer with the images. The DNG and the JPG of the same image have different names, all 8 charachters. I get names like TXV15599.DNG and LHN18622.JPG  - both the same image, then the next image pair in the sequence (captured just minutes later) is LHAV0676.DNG and DOFG1522.JPG - again versions of the same image. So, there's two images with four different unrelated file names. 

          N
          nhan_8084
          Participating Frequently
          August 6, 2025

          @BorisTheBlade I forgot if the question was answered or brought up, when I took 10x SR of Indigo, it doesn't look like a 10x shot vs the native stock app.  It looks like a 8x or so zoom.  The native 10x is a true 10x, albeit it being much much worse than Indigo's.  Is it possible for the focal lengths to match that of the native's?

          N
          nhan_8084
          Participating Frequently
          August 7, 2025

          @BorisTheBlade Could you answer this question of mine?  I wasn't sure if you saw it.  Thanks!

          M
          michaelb79622326
          Participant
          August 5, 2025

          It's really magic. Like my old Pixel 4a. Today I stopped in the Forrest where I made some nice pictures years ago with my old Pixel. Now I watched at the photo at home and I'm really impressed. PI catches the colors really good. And I like how it shows the street.

          The Photo comes from the 13Pro. Unedited.

          Don't give up hope on the iphones. The real Pixel style is very near. 

          PI gave me the hope, to stay with a Apple phone 🙂
          Please don´t change this colors, DEV Team.
          This is exactly what we love 🙂

          Thank you so so much

           

           

            M
            michaelb79622326
            Participant
            August 5, 2025

            Soorryyy,
            here is the full res and link 🙂

            https://ibb.co/5xR4NHZ5


              T
              Tom_Buckley7182
              Participant
              August 3, 2025

              This has probably been brought up before. If I take a photo with P.I., edit with the native Apple camera or Snapseed then open it in Lightroom Mobile it reverts back to the original photo taken with P.I. Camera. Why is that?

              R
              RolandIEmbraceTheBlur
              Participating Frequently
              August 3, 2025

              * i tried a cheapie bluetooth remote and it was terrible 🙂 it's easier for me 🙂 just to tap the screen

              * I continue to love the app: https://flic.kr/p/2rkjGSX <-- 25x zoom photo of a taiko singer yesterday at the Powell Street Festival in Vancouver, Canada. I wouldn't have got this shot with any other app. Thanks team!

              * Embrace the blur! This app is ALSO great at making blurry photos which I love (Pro Mode 1/30 of a second and/or slow shutter mode, both are great) https://flic.kr/p/2rjHi7y 

              H
              Hans N 25
              Participant
              August 3, 2025

              Got the sun yesterday wild fire smoke from out west here in Michigan 

               

              H
              Hans N 25
              Participant
              August 4, 2025

              I couldn't edit the above post, it was shot using 14 pro @ 6X SR fantastic detail much better than the iPhone at the same crop. I like the app for night and telephoto shots

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