Adobe has launched a new experimental camera application for iPhone users, Project Indigo. This expands Adobe Labs’ suite of mobile tools following the recent arrivals of Photoshop and Firefly on the App Store. The new app harnesses artificial intelligence and advanced computational photography to deliver images with greater depth, detail, and realism.
Currently available as a free download, Project Indigo offers a refined photography experience aimed at addressing the limitations of traditional smartphone imaging. Adobe says the app is designed to move away from the typical “smartphone look”, characterised by overly bright images, excessive smoothing, and exaggerated colour saturation, that can appear unnatural when viewed on larger displays.
Unlike the default camera apps on most phones, Project Indigo prioritises image fidelity by using sophisticated algorithms to capture up to 32 individual frames per shot. These are then merged to produce a single image with improved dynamic range, fewer blown-out highlights, and significantly reduced noise, especially in shadowed areas.
The app offers extensive manual controls, including settings for aperture, shutter speed, ISO, focus, and white balance, with additional tweaks for temperature and tint. Users can choose between two modes: Photo for regular daytime shots and Night, which leverages longer exposure and enhanced stabilisation to capture clearer images in low light with less motion blur.
A standout feature of Project Indigo is its use of multi-frame super resolution. This function combats the quality loss typically associated with digital zoom by stacking multiple frames of the same scene, resulting in sharper, more detailed “super resolution” images—particularly useful when zooming in on distant subjects.
Project Indigo stores photos in both standard dynamic range (SDR) and high dynamic range (HDR), and the output is compatible with Adobe’s own Camera Raw and Lightroom platforms. Adobe notes that its under-exposure technique in image capture allows for a more natural, DSLR-style output without heavy reliance on post-processing.
Available for iPhones starting from the iPhone 12 Pro series, and select non-Pro models from the iPhone 14 onwards, the app does not currently require user sign-in and remains completely free to use. Adobe also confirmed plans to release an Android version of Project Indigo at a later stage.
