Filmmaker Rian Johnson releases iPhone camera app built on his movies' color pipeline
Director Rian Johnson and cinematographer Steve Yedlin have released Chromagraph Camera, a $13 iOS app that gives phone photos the film-like grade used on Johnson's movies.
Film director Rian Johnson has teamed up with his longtime cinematographer, Steve Yedlin, to release an iPhone camera app that applies the color treatment used on Johnson's feature films to everyday phone photos, according to an interview published by The Verge. The app, called Chromagraph Camera, costs $13 on iOS and works around parts of Apple's own image processing.
From movie grading to phone photos
Johnson, known for Knives Out and The Last Jedi, is a committed film photographer who often carries a Leica M6 on set. He told The Verge that bulky camera gear is inconvenient and that his phone is always with him, which led him to look for a way to make iPhone shots resemble the look of his films.
The foundation came from Yedlin, who previously wrote a set of color grading scripts intended to give digital footage the organic quality of celluloid. Yedlin holds that, with the right algorithms and settings, digital images can be indistinguishable from film. Those tools were later used on Johnson's still RAW files and film scans, and the new app brings the same approach to mobile.
What the app does
Chromagraph Camera functions as both a camera and an editor. Shooting options include a maximum exposure time, burst mode and color tuning. Users can also import RAW images they have already taken and run them through the processing, then adjust tone, color, saturation and texture.
The Verge described the interface as early-stage, with some controls placed in unexpected spots, but noted that the processing itself is the main attraction. The app spread widely on social media over a weekend, with early users comparing its output favorably against Apple's default results.
The release comes as phone makers add their own stylistic tools. The report notes that Apple introduced film, grain and halation settings on the iPhone 18 Pro and Google added a "Camera Looks" panel to the Pixel 11, though neither offers the control of working from a RAW file. Johnson said his earlier workflow of third-party RAW apps and manual editing involved constant file shuffling and slider adjustments.
Why it matters
For people following software and mobile technology, the app reflects a broader push back against the bright, sharp and clinical look produced by computational photography. It also shows how professional imaging techniques, once confined to film production, are increasingly packaged into consumer apps that sit on top of a phone's built-in processing rather than replacing the hardware.
Source: The Verge
This article was written with the help of AI, based on reporting by The Verge.