Rian Johnson Built an iPhone Camera App Around His Movies' Color-Grading Techniques
A new interview reveals how the filmmaker and cinematographer Steve Yedlin adapted their approach to film color into Chromagraph Camera, a $13 iOS photography app.
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Filmmaker Rian Johnson has turned his interest in analog photography into a new iPhone camera application. In an interview published by The Verge on November 4, Johnson explained how he worked with longtime cinematographer Steve Yedlin to develop Chromagraph Camera, an iOS app designed to produce photographic results closer to the visual character of their film work.
The $13 application addresses a frustration Johnson encountered while using conventional smartphone cameras. Modern computational photography often emphasizes sharpness, brightness and automated processing. Johnson wanted greater control over the resulting image without repeatedly moving files between camera applications and editing software.
Yedlin brought experience developing digital color-processing techniques intended to reproduce aspects of the appearance of film. The pair adapted that approach for mobile photography, allowing Chromagraph Camera to apply its own rendering to captured images. The Verge reports that the application bypasses elements of Apple's standard image-processing pipeline rather than relying entirely on the iPhone's default photographic output.
Chromagraph Camera supports direct shooting and editing, including exposure controls, burst capture and color adjustments. It can also import existing RAW photographs, allowing users to apply its processing to images captured previously. Controls for tone, saturation, color and texture provide additional ways to refine the finished image.
The November 4 interview offers new firsthand detail about the creative motivation and technical background behind the application. It also highlights the distinction between producing an attractive photographic effect and reproducing the particular color response Johnson and Yedlin have developed for cinematic work. The software is commercially available, although its interface remains comparatively early in development, according to The Verge's assessment.