Latest news with #Levoy
Express Tribune
20-06-2025
- Express Tribune
Adobe Project Indigo: A free-to-use iPhone app for SLR-style photos
Adobe has launched a new computational photography camera app for iPhones, offering users a powerful tool to capture high-quality, natural-looking photos. The app, named Project Indigo, is free to download and currently available for iPhone 12 Pro models and newer, with Adobe recommending optimal use on an iPhone 15 Pro or later. The app was developed in part by Marc Levoy, a renowned figure in mobile imaging who previously helped transform the Google Pixel camera's capabilities. Now an Adobe Fellow, Levoy worked alongside senior scientist Florian Kainz to build the app under Adobe Labs. The project was announced on Adobe's website through a technical blog. Unlike most Adobe products, Project Indigo does not require users to log into an Adobe account, allowing immediate access to its features. Indigo leverages computational photography to improve image quality by capturing a burst of photos and combining them to produce a final image with enhanced dynamic range and reduced noise. The app aims to deliver a 'natural, SLR-like' aesthetic and includes full manual controls for focus, ISO, shutter speed, and white balance — features aimed at enthusiasts and professionals alike. Adobe Labs releases an experimental digital photography app Project Indigo ( to showcase breakthrough innovations, including reflection removal, which is being published at CVPR this week. Check out this blog: — Adobe Research (@AdobeResearch) June 13, 2025 In the technical blog post, Levoy and Kainz outlined how the app processes images to retain a natural look, explaining key elements of its image pipeline. They noted that Project Indigo is intended as both a standalone tool and a testbed for features that may appear in other Adobe products. Experimental tools under consideration include a reflection removal button, portrait mode enhancements, and eventually, video recording capabilities. 'This is the beginning of a journey for Adobe – towards an integrated mobile camera and editing experience that takes advantage of the latest advances in computational photography and AI,' wrote Levoy and Kainz. The team's vision is to bridge the gap between casual mobile shooters and advanced photographers, offering an app that balances accessibility with powerful photographic control. An Android version is also in development. For now, Project Indigo marks Adobe's most significant foray into mobile camera software, reflecting the growing importance of AI-driven photography tools in both consumer and professional imaging.
Hans India
20-06-2025
- Hans India
Adobe's Project Indigo Brings Cutting-Edge Computational Photography to iPhones
Adobe has stepped into the mobile photography arena with the launch of 'Project Indigo,' a new computational photography app designed exclusively for iPhones. Developed under Adobe Labs, the app brings together advanced imaging science and intuitive design to enhance the photo-taking experience for mobile users. One of the key minds behind this innovation is Marc Levoy, a former distinguished engineer at Google known for revolutionizing the Pixel smartphone camera. Now an Adobe Fellow, Levoy has teamed up with Adobe's senior scientist Florian Kainz to craft this next-generation photography tool. Released last week, 'Project Indigo' is available for free on select iPhone models, including the iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max, iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max, and all iPhone 14 and newer devices. Adobe recommends using an iPhone 15 Pro or later for the best performance. Notably, users do not need to sign into an Adobe account to access the app, making it hassle-free and accessible to all iPhone users. What sets 'Project Indigo' apart from the standard iPhone camera is its computational foundation. Instead of capturing a single image, the app records a rapid burst of frames and blends them to produce a high-resolution photo with reduced noise and enhanced dynamic range. This approach mimics the effect of a DSLR, giving images a more natural and professional finish. 'Instead of capturing a single photo, Indigo captures a burst of photos and combines them together to produce a high-quality photo with lower noise and higher dynamic range,' reads the app's official description. Photographers—whether amateur or experienced—will also appreciate the array of manual settings Indigo offers. From shutter speed and ISO to white balance and focus, the app puts precise control at the user's fingertips, making it ideal for those who want to go beyond point-and-shoot photography. For those curious about the deeper technical workings, Adobe has published an in-depth blog post by Levoy and Kainz. It dives into how smartphone cameras have evolved, how computational photography operates behind the scenes, and the ways Indigo's image pipeline achieves its naturalistic aesthetic. Even for readers without a photography background, the post offers fascinating insights and a gallery of impressive sample images taken with the app. 'This is the beginning of a journey for Adobe – towards an integrated mobile camera and editing experience that takes advantage of the latest advances in computational photography and AI,' Levoy and Kainz explained in their post. They also revealed that 'Project Indigo' serves as a testbed for future Adobe innovations. Features in the works include tools like reflection removal, a portrait mode, and even video capabilities. An Android version is also on the horizon. 'Our hope is that Indigo will appeal to casual mobile photographers who want a natural SLR-like look for their photos, including when viewed on large screens; to advanced photographers who want manual control and the highest possible image quality; and to anyone – casual or serious – who enjoys playing with new photographic experiences,' the duo added. With 'Project Indigo', Adobe isn't just entering the mobile camera space — it's aiming to reshape it.
Engadget
18-06-2025
- Engadget
Adobe Project Indigo is a new photo app from former Pixel camera engineers
Adobe launched its own take on how smartphone cameras should work this week with Project Indigo, a new iPhone camera app from some of the team behind the Pixel camera. The project combines the computational photography techniques that engineers Marc Levoy and Florian Kainz popularized at Google, with pro controls and new AI-powered features. In their announcement of the new app, Levoy and Kainz style Project Indigo as the better answer to typical smartphone camera complaints of limited controls and over-processing. Rather than using aggressive tone mapping and sharpening, Project Indigo is supposed to use "only mild tone mapping, boosting of color saturation, and sharpening." That's intentionally not the same as the "zero-processing" approach some third-party apps are taking. "Based on our conversations with photographers, what they really want is not zero-process but a more natural look — more like what an SLR might produce," Levoy and Kainz write. The new app also has fully manual controls, "and the highest image quality that computational photography can provide," whether you want a JPEG or a RAW file at the end. Project Indigo achieves that by dramatically under-exposing the shots it combines together, and relying on a larger number of shots to combine — up to 32 frames, according to Levoy and Kainz. The app also includes some of Adobe's more experimental photo features, like "Remove Reflections," which uses AI to eliminate reflections from photos. Levoy left Google in 2020, and joined Adobe a few months later to form a team with the express goal of building a "universal camera app". Based on his LinkedIn, Kainz joined Adobe that same year. At Google, Kainz and Levoy were often credited with popularizing the concept of computational photography, where camera apps rely more on software than hardware to produce quality smartphone photos. Google's success in that arena kicked off a camera arms race that's raised the bar everywhere, but also led to some pretty over-the-top photos. Project Indigo is a bit of a corrective, and also an interesting test whether a third-party app that might produce better photos is enough to beat the default. Project Indigo is available to download for free now, and runs on either the iPhone 12 Pro and up, or the iPhone 14 and up. An Android version of the app is coming at some point in the future. If you buy something through a link in this article, we may earn commission.
