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Rikk Flohr_Photography
Community Manager
Rikk Flohr_PhotographyCommunity Manager
May 23, 2025

P: Introducing the Project Indigo camera app

  • May 23, 2025
  • 406 replies
  • 243952 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: 

 

      406 replies

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      Harmonious_guide8570
      Participant
      June 22, 2025

      Request for Cooperation Regarding Continuous Shutter Sound Issue in Indigo App

      Dear Project Indigo Development Team,

       

      First of all, thank you for creating Indigo—it’s one of the most thoughtfully designed and impressive camera apps I’ve ever used. I genuinely appreciate the care and innovation your team has put into it.

       

      However, as an iPhone user based in South Korea, I’d like to bring to your attention a persistent issue with shutter sounds when using Indigo on iOS in this region, and to propose closer cooperation between Adobe and Apple to help address it.

       

      As you know, Indigo’s multi-frame fusion architecture involves capturing multiple RAW frames in rapid succession. Unfortunately, due to region-specific behavior in iOS for the Korean market, each of these RAW frame requests triggers a shutter sound—even when no actual photo is being taken. As a result, Indigo becomes nearly unusable in quiet environments across Korea.

       

      Apple has stated that this is due to a legal requirement in Korea mandating shutter sounds. However, this is factually incorrect. South Korea has no law requiring such sounds. Instead, there exists only a non-binding, privately issued guideline by the Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA), which holds no legal authority. For your reference, I’ve attached the original TTA standard document as a PDF.

       

      This policy has recently come under public scrutiny in major Korean media. Reports from organizations like the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, as well as outlets such as the Maeil Business Newspaper, highlight that over 85% of respondents believe shutter sounds should be user-selectable, and they clearly state there is no legal obligation to enforce such behavior.

       

      I plan to formally reach out to Apple to request a reconsideration of this regional policy. I would also like to kindly ask Adobe to raise this issue with Apple, emphasizing that the current enforcement is based on a misinterpretation of local regulations. Since Adobe has already collaborated with Apple regarding related APIs, reaffirming that “there is no legal requirement for shutter sounds in Korea” could strengthen the case for change.

       

      Thank you again for your excellent work on Indigo. I hope this message helps contribute to a better user experience.

       

       

       

        B
        Adobe Employee
        BorisTheBlade
        Adobe Employee
        June 24, 2025

        Hello - thank you for your interest in Indigo, and for your detailed and thoughtful message. We are working with Apple on this issue for South Korea and Japan, and will release a version of the app which works without additional shutter sounds as soon as we are able to. 

          H
          Harmonious_guide8570
          Participant
          June 24, 2025

          Thank you for the update and your continued efforts on this issue. I truly appreciate it.


          I hope the eventual solution doesn’t rely on capturing the live camera feed via AVCaptureVideoDataOutput or similar workarounds that bypass the shutter sound but compromise image quality.

          Indigo’s RAW-based multi-frame processing is what makes it stand out, and I’d love to see that preserved.

          Thanks again for your dedication.

            J
            jillpearson
            Participant
            June 21, 2025

            Looks really exciting but I only took one photo and now the PI app has a banner saying my phone is overheating. Indeed it is very hot and nonresponsive. I can't use the app (nor my phone for several minutes after trying again to open the app). 

            14 Pro Max 1TB, with over 500GB available. iOS 18.5 (22F76)

              D
              derosa42
              Participant
              June 23, 2025

              reported same problem

               

              D
              djskinner50
              Known Participant
              June 21, 2025

              Would be nice to have some dng files in the Lightroom album for us to play with.

              D
              djskinner50
              Known Participant
              June 21, 2025

              Dumb question. I just started using the app and can't find the Long Exposure button.

              B
              Adobe Employee
              BorisTheBlade
              Adobe Employee
              June 24, 2025

              Hello - thank you for reaching out. The Long Exposure button can be found as follows: switch to Night mode, open Pro Controls, then click on the last button to the right (5th control), then switch the Merge Method to Long Exposure.

              Note that for best results you shoud make sure the device is on a tripod or placed somewhere it can be fully static, as otherwise you will likely end up with a blurry photo.

              N
              nhan_8084
              Known Participant
              June 21, 2025

              I noticed that the raw is hdr and lightroom mobile opens hdr as default to be processed and it works fine.  However, if you save as jpeg and shared via facebook messenger, facebook, or telegram it makes the hdr even more hdr-y.  See attachments.  The 8701 and 8702 are processed PI dng to jpg.  The png file is how it looks in telegram and also in this forum's file viewer when sending attachments.  Is there a way to save as sdr but only use hdr when hdr display is used?  Similar to google's ultra HDR which brightens up certain parts as needed when hdr display is used.  That way social media apps do not see exposure lifted to heaven as standard.

              B
              Adobe Employee
              BorisTheBlade
              Adobe Employee
              June 24, 2025

              That is what Indigo is doing - JPEGs are written according to the new ISO standard with the SDR "look" being stored as base, and then HDR "look" being obtained by combaning the base + the HDR gain map. It is up to each piece of the ecosystem to respect the format and render it accordingly or pass it along to others in the ecosystem intact. This should include that if the display is not HDR-capable, only the base SDR portion of the image should be rendered (i.e., without the HDR gain map). Note that the HDR ecosystem is still a bit nascent and will take some more time for all players in the field to equalize and catch up to the defined standard.

              H
              horseoz
              Participant
              June 21, 2025

              Looking forward to the Android version 

                K
                Kurtay_Photography0591
                Participant
                June 21, 2025

                Down vote from me; the App requires latest IOS 18.5 and I am on 18.3 (don't wish to update due to Apple security cut back in UK). Besides, previously I bought a AppleMacbookPro in 2012, only 6 months later Adobe was not going to work in the newer Apple OS updates. And this new App seemes to conjunctive with Lightroom which sounds to me monopoly continues as before. 

                Adobe isn't a company neither I supoort nor I recommend anyone any more. Sensitive issue perhaps but my iPhone already takes very good photographs and I don't wish to computerise my photographs. If needed one can alsways use the ChatGPT to create an image. 

                Photography is a subject/hobby/craft made with challenges; take away these take away the fun! As it is Digital cameras took most of the fun from us, let's us stay with some reality at least! 

                K
                Kurtay_Photography0591
                Participant
                June 21, 2025

                The newest posting should be the first one to show on the list; perhaps Adobe can fix that first ! 

                A
                Anonymous
                June 21, 2025

                Ran into an image that seemed to capture properly, but shows up sometimes in the camera roll with a green cast. I've attached a screenshot, but I don't have an easy way to send the DNG. The attachment form rejected it with "dng content type (image/x-adobe-dng) does not match its file extension"

                My device is a US market device,  a 16 pro max unlocked purchased directly from apple at launch.

                B
                Adobe Employee
                BorisTheBlade
                Adobe Employee
                June 24, 2025

                Hello - thank you for using Indigo and for reaching out with this issue. Can you try to post a DNG by compressing it to a .zip file first?

                Can you tell me which iOS version are you running? Make sure it is not a beta but a release 18.5 version, as the beta has some issues which prevent Indigo from running correctly. Also, it sounds like you got a green cast image on more then one occassion, not just one time: is there some rule or pattern that causes it to happen that you can think of - perhaps it is more common in Night mode than Photo mode, or with certain shutter speed settings? Knowing that can help us a lot in debugging.

                D
                Ducamantova65
                Participant
                June 21, 2025

                Hi - I've just downloaded Indigo and started to play with it.  I like to take my images in 16x9 format, but can't see how to do this in Indigo. Is it a current feature or will it be included later ?

                  B
                  Adobe Employee
                  BorisTheBlade
                  Adobe Employee
                  June 24, 2025

                  Aspect ratio support is on our roadmap and will be included in a future version of the app.

                    S
                    stunning_enthusiasm16B8
                    Participating Frequently
                    June 20, 2025

                    Is there a way to take a photo in 16:9 format?

                    Thanks.

                      B
                      Adobe Employee
                      BorisTheBlade
                      Adobe Employee
                      June 24, 2025

                      Aspect ratio support is on our roadmap and will be included in a future version of the app.

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