Adobe is launching a new “computational photography” camera application for iPhones

Adobe has a new application of an iphones computing photography camera – and one of his creators, Marc Levoy, helped make impressive calculation photography functionalities that have shone the google previous pixel cameras.

The new application, called Project Indigowas published last week by Adobe Labs. It is free and available for the iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max, the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max, as well as all iPhone 14 and Plus models. (Although Adobe recommends using an iPhone 15 Pro or more recent.) It also does not require connection to an Adobe account to use.

“Instead of capturing a single photo, Indigo captures an explosion of photos and combines them together to produce a high quality photo with lower noise and a higher dynamic range”, according to the description of the application. Indigo tries to produce a natural “SLR” look for photos, and it also offers a bunch of manual controls such as focusing, shutter speed, iso and white balance.

To really understand what is happening under the hood of Project Indigo, however, I strongly recommend reading a Detailed blog article Of Levoy, now an adobe scholarship holder who joined the company in 2020 To build a “universal camera application” and Florian Kainz, a main scientist. The post covers things like why smartphone cameras are good, how his calculation photograph works, how he creates the natural look of his photos and some details on his image processing pipeline.

This is where I must admit that I am in no way an expert on camera. But even I found the post quite interesting and informative. The photos of the post look great, and Adobe has A photo album you can browseAlso.

In the position, Levoy and Kainz say that the Indigo project will also be a test bench for technologies that could be added to other flagship products, such as a button to delete reflections. And throughout the line, the team plans to build things like an Android version, a portrait mode and even video recording.

“This is the start of a trip to Adobe – to an integrated mobile camera and an editing experience that takes advantage of the latest advances in computer photography and AI,” according to Levoy and Kainz. “Our hope is that Indigo will appeal to occasional mobile photographers who want a natural SLR look for their photos, including when seen on large screens; advanced photographers who want manual control and the highest image quality; and to anyone – occasional or serious – who likes to play with new photographic experiences.”