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Rikk Flohr_Photography
Community Manager
May 23, 2025

P: Introducing the Project Indigo camera app

  • May 23, 2025
  • 408 replies
  • 244540 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 thiProject 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: 

 

    408 replies

    jimf16377877
    Known Participant
    July 31, 2025

    I love Project Indigo! I would like to make the following suggestion/feature request: Having some of the controls always visible at the edges of the frame makes composition difficult at times. It would be great if there was some way to hide them and have a clear field of view after everything is set up for an exposure. 

    Adobe Employee
    July 31, 2025

    Thank you for trying Project Indigo and for your feedback. We are aware of the preference by some users to be able to have a "clean" viewfinder when framing, and we are exploring ways for the UI to expose this functionality. Please stay tuned for updates such as that one.

    Participant
    July 31, 2025

    I have tested the Indigo app on an iPhone 16 Pro and I have to say it looks very promising. Even though the app still is under development the results usually look very good, clearly better compared to the native apps. Also, the "Indigo" profile in Lightroom Mobile works well. For the issues still remaining - is there a possibility for a "bug report"? I have occasionally seen weird local color casts and lack of detail. I do not necessarily want to share the images here, but if this would be the only way to provide feedback I will do so.

    Participant
    July 31, 2025

    This is more for the future, when Indigo will be released out of beta. Photomerge in Photoshop does not work correctly with RAW images from Indigo. So far, I have encountered two problems with different panoramas.

     

    1, Panoramas were not merged at all. Photoshop opened three layers (three images were taken), but the resulting image was just the middle image. Left and right image were shown as black masks in the layers section (bottom right of the screen) but did not appear at all in the image itself. When converted to standard SDR JPEGs, Photomerge stitched them flawlessly.

     

    2, The next one consisted of two images. This time, stitching process was successful geometrically, but the colours were off. Left image seemed like it was converted to SDR, the right one was very contrasty. Again, when manually converted to SDR JPEGs first and attempted to apply Photomerge, there were no problems and colours were fine (both halves had the same contrast).

    Known Participant
    August 1, 2025

    I'm using Lightroom Classic to merge my images into a pano and sometimes have simiular issues but most of the time it works well. The problem I see is that the exposure is wildly different across the pano. I'd say this happens mayb 20% of the time. When this happens, about half the time it asks me if this is a HDR pano and I say no. Maybe I should say yes and see what it does.

    I'm running iOS 26 beta (1 and 2 when I was using Indigo on my vacation- yes, I'm crazy) so was assuming it was a problem due to the beta of iOS.
    I also had images where the border was unfinished and was often getting the overheating error (first version of Indigo only).

    Adobe Employee
    August 1, 2025

    well, it wouldn't let me add the photos. Let me know how to get to the lightroom team and I'm happy to do so.


    quote

    well, it wouldn't let me add the photos. Let me know how to get to the lightroom team and I'm happy to do so.


    By @Russ Wright

    Thank you Russ - it may be best to contact the Lightroom Classic team directly on that community board: https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic/ct-p/ct-lightroom-classic?page=1&sort=latest_replies&lang=all&tabid=all

    Known Participant
    July 31, 2025

    I could never upload dng from PI so I took a similar scene using DCG from google camera as reference to show how I would like raw files to look like.  As discussed before of course this is just reference sample and to my preference of how raw should be, nothing to say that PI raws are no way bad so please don't think that way :). @BorisTheBlade 

     

    Edit:  I still cant upload any dng!  So I have put to my google drive:  

     

    This is PI raw dng https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LBJPHRtIVAmdCK55e1glaDrzPFvEEdcU/view?usp=drivesdk

     

    This is the google camera DCG dng: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sCroHFbLybscW4GWUC9yOTjv29cunlP3/view?usp=drivesdk

    Adobe Employee
    July 31, 2025
    quote

    I could never upload dng from PI so I took a similar scene using DCG from google camera as reference to show how I would like raw files to look like.  As discussed before of course this is just reference sample and to my preference of how raw should be, nothing to say that PI raws are no way bad so please don't think that way :). @BorisTheBlade 

     

    Edit:  I still cant upload any dng!  So I have put to my google drive:  

     

    This is PI raw dng https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LBJPHRtIVAmdCK55e1glaDrzPFvEEdcU/view?usp=drivesdk

     

    This is the google camera DCG dng: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sCroHFbLybscW4GWUC9yOTjv29cunlP3/view?usp=drivesdk


    By @nhan_8084

    Hello - thank you for sharing the DNGs. Unfortunately, the forum platform still doesn't support direct DNG sharing: it is being worked on, but is taking longer than anticipated. In the meantime, can you enable access to the Google Drive shared folders to anyone with the link? Otherwise I won't be able to download them. Thank you for helping improve Indigo!

    Known Participant
    July 31, 2025

    Oops!  @BorisTheBlade try now!

    Participant
    July 29, 2025
    The app hasn't been updated for a month, is there any information on when an update will be released?

     

    Adobe Employee
    July 30, 2025

    Hello - thank you for your inquiry. We are working on app updates and will be releasing a new version in the coming weeks. 

    Participant
    July 30, 2025

    I use a iphone 14 Pro and have used PI for a while now.  I have re-enabled SR and just watch out not to overheat my phone.  I feel the 1X and 2X can't compete with Halide when using 48mp Raw but I find the 3X and 6X SR quite amazing and my go to for added reach.  Close ups with the wide lens also look great with PI.  With the 17 Pro (my next phone) having all 48mp lenses PI needs to support the higher resolution.  

    Participating Frequently
    July 25, 2025

    Do I recall that portrait mode is on the road map for PI? Certainly it's possible to go into Lightroom Mobile, apply blur, and export as JPEG but a built in portrait mode would be great. 

    Adobe Employee
    July 30, 2025

    Portrait mode is indeed being considered for a future version of Indigo. In the meantime, we will have many smaller and larger improvements and additions to the app - stay tuned!

    Participating Frequently
    July 25, 2025

    I think it'd be cool if there was a specific "Indigo" finals' image gallery.  Post the final image shot with Indigo and then state the workflow you used to produce the final.  While reading the posts in this thread, it seems like there are quite a few shooters that use different "means to an end".  Educationally beneficial for everyone IMO! Fantastic app btw.  

    Participant
    July 23, 2025

    Hi, been enjoying the app, hoping you guys would add support for the 48mp back cam for 16 pro and also for flash support, thank you so much!

     

    Known Participant
    July 21, 2025

    How can I download to my laptop the raw/dng files.  I have it set to capture jpegand rea but when I air drop them it only sends the jpeg files. 

     

    Thx, Steve Schneider

    Seattle, WA

     

    Adobe Employee
    July 21, 2025

    Hello Steve - thank you for trying Indigo camera. This question has been discussed many times on the forum. The best is to follow advice given by Greg Benz in his review of the app (towards the end of the article): https://gregbenzphotography.com/photography-reviews/project-indigo-the-best-camera-app-for-smart-phones/

    Known Participant
    July 22, 2025
    thanks
    Participant
    July 21, 2025

    Hey there,

    Thanks so much for this App 🙂

    I really miss the style of the Google Pixel Photos. 

    So I tried the App on my 13 Pro. 

    I can shoot Photos in day and night mode. 

    But without burst. That's okay 👍

     

    Photos looks really better than stock camera. The colors are way more accurate. 

     

    Question or wish.:

    How can I shoot in 16:9 aspect Ratio?

    I really need that because I want to shoot pictures for my TV screen and Notebook and not for Instagram anymore. 🙂

     

    Thank you so much. 

    Adobe Employee
    July 21, 2025
    quote

    Question or wish.:

    How can I shoot in 16:9 aspect Ratio?


    By @Gehlich_Patrick4796

     

    Hello Patrick - thank you for trying Indigo and providing us feedback. Different aspect ratio captures are not yet available. It is on our roadmap for one of the upcoming releases.

    Participant
    July 21, 2025

    Thank you very much for the fast feedback. This is very good to hear 🙂

    I'm really looking forward to try out. 

     

    Until now I can say that I'm very happy and thankful for the app. 😌