Generative artificial intelligence products like ChatGPT, Gemini, and many others let you create images with text prompts. They also offer powerful editing tools that let you change real photos into anything you want.
These abilities won’t reduce our need to take photos and record videos of everything around us. You might tweak your memories with AI software, but you’ll still use a real camera to capture them.
Most of the time, it’s the camera readily available in your pocket. Your smartphone can already grab amazing photos and videos. The newer and more expensive the device, the better the camera experience. Also, that camera will almost always use AI (computational photography) while you’re pressing the shutter button to capture content.
Still, phones aren’t quite on par with DSLR cameras, even if they’re good enough to shoot movies like Brad Pitt’s upcoming F1 movie.
That’s where Project Indigo comes in, an ambitious project from Adobe. The company wants to put a DSLR-grade camera experience in your pocket by giving you manual control over photography settings and using AI to deliver the best possible quality for all kinds of photo scenarios.
The best part about Project Indigo is that it’s coming from an Adobe team that includes Marc Levoy, who was responsible for the amazing computational photography features Google built into its Pixel phones.
Project Indigo is available as a free download for now, so all iPhone users can install it on compatible devices. You don’t even need to sign into an Adobe account to use it. The app also works with Adobe’s popular Lightroom and Photoshop apps, where you might want to edit your photos.
The hardware
Project Indigo uses AI to improve the quality of your photos. It captures a burst of up to 32 pictures when you press the shutter button to reduce noise and enhance HDR. That means the app needs a powerful processor.
Adobe recommends an iPhone 15 Pro or newer, but Project Indigo works on the Pro/Pro Max versions of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 series. It’s also compatible with any iPhone starting with the non-Pro iPhone 14 models and up to the iPhone 16 Pro Max. Project Indigo will support the iPhone 17 series later this year.
Adobe says it plans to release a version for Android, but there’s no timeline for that yet.
The camera experience
Currently, Project Indigo features two modes: Photo Mode and Night Mode. It’s up to you to pick the right one based on the lighting conditions. There’s no Video Mode yet.
The app starts taking photos as soon as you open the viewfinder. This supports zero shutter lag, meaning it’ll capture the exact moment you wanted when you press the button.
Users have Pro controls to customize the shot. You can adjust the focus, exposure time, ISO, exposure compensation, and white balance.
The camera uses AI to “produce a natural (SLR-like) look for your photos, including special (but gentle) treatment of subjects and skies.”
This is what you get when you save your files as JPEGs. Project Indigo can also save files in raw DNG, which is great if you want to edit them later in apps like Lightroom. You can launch Lightroom directly from Project Indigo if needed.
DNG is also a strong alternative to Apple’s ProRAW. Adobe says its files are smaller and work on older iPhones that can’t save ProRAW pictures.
Advanced shooting modes
I’ve already downloaded the Project Indigo app and can’t wait to try it out for specific use cases. I’m by no means a professional photographer. I point. I shoot.
But Project Indigo will let me capture “water-into-silk” photographs, like in one of the samples above. I’m also excited about its ability to improve digital zoom. Adobe uses AI to compensate for camera shake and recover image quality when using digital zoom.
Project Indigo will also introduce technology previews that give users early access to new AI-powered features. One of them is the ability to remove reflections from images, which should be especially helpful for photos taken through windows.
See the photo of that almost-full moon below? That’s not something most phones can capture, even Apple’s latest iPhone 16 Pro models. Adobe plans to eventually add a built-in feature in the app that lets you point your iPhone at the sky, press a button, and get a photo like that one without having to stitch images in Photoshop. The AI will do it all.
You can download Project Indigo for free from the App Store at this link. I also recommend checking out Adobe’s blog post by Marc Levoy and Florian Kainz. It does a great job explaining the limitations of default smartphone camera apps and how Project Indigo can elevate the photo-taking experience. The blog includes lots of sample shots too.
