Sticky

P: Introducing the Project Indigo camera app

Forum|Forum|9 months ago
May 23, 2025
368 replies
236400 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.

Download the app from the App Store.
Check out the Project Indigo FAQ, which is updated regularly with new explanations.

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:

Show previous replies

F

Flamboyant_individual2154

Participant

Problem with cropping and colour changes

I'm loving the image/colour quality from this app, but I have an issue with cropping. When I crop using iPhone 15 Pro and Apple Photos, the cropped image has weird colour shifts when viewed full-screen. The thumbnail in Apple Photos is fine. If I put it in the "shared library" it appears fine on my wife's phone and iPad. On my MacBook Pro the colour shifts remain UNLESS I switch the display to "Photography P3-D65" -- if I leave it on the default "Apple XDR display p3 1600 nits" the colour shifts are still there.

The colour shift is usually quite dramatic but can be towards green, magenta or yellow. Sometimes it's more subtle. But it's always very noticeable (to anyone, not just a photographer).

If I crop photos taken with the default camera app, or those uploaded from my Fuji camera, there is no colour shift.

Project Indigo is set to save as JPG (no DNG) but otherwise I don't think there's any relevant configuration I can change?

B

BorisTheBlade

Adobe Employee

Problem with cropping and colour changes

I'm loving the image/colour quality from this app, but I have an issue with cropping. When I crop using iPhone 15 Pro and Apple Photos, the cropped image has weird colour shifts when viewed full-screen.

By @Flamboyant_individual2154

Hello - thank you for trying Indigo and providing feedback. We are in contact with Apple around this issue and are hoping to have this resolved soon. We'll experiment with display settings as you have suggested to see if that helps narrow down the problem area.

photopoeth

Inspiring

It would be great if you could move the area that the screen magnifier highlights when focusing manually. When working with a tripod (e.g. for macros), it is very annoying that the area is fixed.

In another post, I already suggested being able to define two separate zones for exposure and focus. That could be combined nicely.

This can be seen clearly in the ProCamera app...

A

Anthony_Murphy4940

Participant

I took it for a spin in the high heat of the UAE this past week at 45c and got to say, it did get warm but did not overheat. Overall the dynamic range is impressive. The picture I took of the restaurant, when looking through I myself couldn't make out the other side as it was too bright out. It came out perferctly.

S

Summor_Lamar

Participant

Indigo app causes continuous camera shutter sound on Japanese iPhones

Dear Indigo Development Team,

I’m using the Indigo app on a Japanese iPhone (purchased and configured for the Japan region). As you may know, due to local laws and regulations in Japan, iPhones are required to emit a shutter sound whenever the camera is activated.

However, I’ve noticed that as soon as I launch the Indigo app, my phone begins to make the shutter sound continuously—even without pressing the shutter button. It seems that Indigo continuously accesses the camera for image capture, which triggers the shutter sound repeatedly.

This issue appears to stem from the app not being optimized for devices sold in regions like Japan, where camera behavior is regulated. I hope the development team can consider this regional behavior and provide a fix or setting to address it in a future update.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

David 101

Participating Frequently

I have an iPhone 16 Pro and I prefer to use Bridge and Photoshop on a PC for editing.

The Project Indigo image is saved to iCloud photos but on my windows 11 PC it appearars only as a Jpeg. I would like the image to be available as a RAW file and be able to process it in Camera Raw then Photoshop. Is that workflow supported?

David 101

Participating Frequently

I have now discovered that DNG files can be download from iCloud Photos (Web version) by choosing Unmodified Originals from the More Downloads menu. Both DNG and JPEG are download.

D

DH000photo

Participant

I've really enjoyed using the app but when I edit photos (that I've taken with Indigo) in (iOS) Photos, the saved image looks dramatically different than it did post-edit but prior to hitting "save". Is there a fix for this (other than having to edit in Lightroom and re-save to Photos)? It seems almost pointless to use a camera app that doesn't allow for easy edits.

C

chrisd40442477

Participating Frequently

I've had zero issues with saved images looking different, with these thoughts....

I never use Apple Photos app for anything.

I only use LR mobile to get the raw images into my editor of choice, Capture One for the Mac.

I stopped any attempts to tweak the raw image using LR Mobile before I export to my Mac. The LR edits are NOT retained when I go to C1Pro, so it was kind of a wasted attempt. Good results processing from the Indigo raws.

D

DH000photo

Participant

Thank you. I'm likely far more a beginner than most here, so for me, Apple photos is plenty sufficient. Maybe it's an iOS issue?

D

djskinner50

Known Participant

I am blown away by the improvement over the default iPhone camera app. Please provide a way to select multiple images to add to Lightroom. At the moment I have to do this one at a time. I want to be able to choose multiple images shot with PI and add them to a specific Album that I have created in LR so that I can edit them later on my iPad Pro together with images that I've shot on the Sony A7RV.

J

jean-michel_3747

Participant

Downloading the DNG file

Boris, thank you for directing me to this gregbenz page, with methods to export DNG files. I tried it and it works. A bit time consuming, but it works.

I first import the pictures in LR on the iPhone, then export them, as DNG files, to Files, where Files is an external SSD. You can use batch processing at every stage, so it doesn’t take such a long time.. And then you can post process the DNG file on a computer with a decent screen, large enough to see what you’re doing, not just the tiny iPhone screen.

Thanks again, jean Michel

P

powerful_Elixir5E29

Participating Frequently

@BorisTheBlade Hi! Do you think with super res zoom applied on the full image not a crop of a bayer 12mp sensor it can achieve same level of detail and basically reconstruct a 48mp image as a 48mp quad bayer sensor since those sensors have only 12mp of color detail i think they dont provide more real detail and resolution than a bayer 12mp? What do you think? Will this be added to indigo in the future when the processing is optimized?

B

BorisTheBlade

Adobe Employee

Hello - technically, yes. We didn't explore that yet given the compute complexity, but will experiment with it and see if there is a way to expose it as an option.

@BorisTheBlade Hi! Do you think with super res zoom applied on the full image not a crop of a bayer 12mp sensor it can achieve same level of detail and basically reconstruct a 48mp image as a 48mp quad bayer sensor since those sensors have only 12mp of color detail i think they dont provide more real detail and resolution than a bayer 12mp? What do you think? Will this be added to indigo in the future when the processing is optimized?

By @powerful_Elixir5E29

S

shanev44310791

Participant

Thoughts on the User Experience of the App

Hi, I have been using Indigo now for a few weeks and here are my thoughts:

1 - Long Exposure should be its own button, not hidden in "night" mode.

2 - There should be an option to shoot DNG only, not just JPG+DNG

3 - Macro Mode needs its own button

To explain each further.

1 - Long Exposure

Maybe I'm a total idiot, but I literaly had to go onto youtube and watch an obscure video of a guy doing Long Exposure, because I could not find it anywhere in the app or on Adobe's own blog. At first I thought it would automatically do it, but eventually I found it. I haven't even tested the mode yet, as I couldn't find it while out near water.

Having Long Exposure under Night Mode is unintuitive. I take Long Exposures day and night, so this is confusing.

2 - DNG Only

I use Lightroom App (which I love). There, LR stores the Raws in the app. I take a few photos and, when I'm satisifed I "got the one", I edit it and then export the JPG to my photos app. From here I share away. However, with Indigo, it's instanlty exporting all my photos to the photo app! This just clogs up the app with duplicates. Then, when I export to LR and adjust, I now have an edited and an unedited photo side by side. This is visualy frustrating, and it means I have to go back and delete everything. Please just give me an option for DNG only - I will then export my favourites to LR for editing.

3 - Macro

When in auto mode there is a button which turns Macro on. Same as the regular app. When in pro mode there is a focus wheel. But it doesn't seem to trigger Macro? I think this might be an Apple Hardware thing, but is there a way to add a Macro button in Pro mode? Or at least tell me if I am in Macro mode on the focus wheel?

Aside from that, it's a nice app. I've gotten pleasing photos and it certainly has a place. I look forward to seeing where it goes.

B

BorisTheBlade

Adobe Employee

@shanev44310791 wrote:

Thoughts on the User Experience of the App

Hi, I have been using Indigo now for a few weeks and here are my thoughts:

1 - Long Exposure should be its own button, not hidden in "night" mode.

2 - There should be an option to shoot DNG only, not just JPG+DNG

3 - Macro Mode needs its own button

Hello - thank you for your interest in Indigo and for providing such thoughtful suggestions on improving the app! There is broad agreement on all 3 suggestions, and we will work on adding those to Indigo in future releases.

Show more replies

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded