Director Rian Johnson built a $13 iPhone camera app for film-style photos

Rian Johnson, the director of Knives Out and The Last Jedi, has released an iPhone camera app called Chromagraph Camera. It costs $13. It bypasses parts of Apple's image processing and applies the same look Johnson uses on his movies. He built it with Steve Yedlin, his longtime cinematographer.

What the app does

Phone cameras now tend to produce photos that look sharper, brighter and more clinical than they once did. Chromagraph aims to bring back some of the grain and contrast of older cameras. The app is simple, with just a few primary settings.

• It works as a camera, with settings for maximum exposure time, burst mode and color tuning.
• It also works as an editor for RAW photos you already shot.
• After import, you can adjust tone, color, saturation and texture.

RAW files are less processed photo files that leave more room for editing. The Verge's reporter found that the film-like processing does not suit every photo right away, but it was fun to run old RAW images through it.

Why Johnson built it

Johnson shoots film on set with a Leica M6. He says carrying real cameras is a pain, and his phone is always with him. He first tried editing iPhone photos in Snapseed, then used third-party RAW apps. That meant moving files around and adjusting endless sliders, which he found tiring.

Yedlin had already built color grading scripts that give Johnson's movies the organic look of film. Johnson was able to apply that same process to his still RAW files and film scans. That gave him the confidence to ask for an iPhone version.

How it compares to built-in tools

Phone makers are adding similar features. Apple put a texture panel with film, grain and halation settings in the iPhone 18 Pro. Google added a Camera Looks panel to the Pixel 11. According to the report, these still do not give the control you get by starting from a RAW image.

What to know before buying

The app is in its early stages. Some settings and menu items sit in unexpected places. Even so, Chromagraph went viral on social media over the weekend, and many early users praised its results compared with Apple's default photos.

The report does not say whether versions for other phones are planned. It also does not say which iPhone models work best. For now, the app is an iPhone-only way to get a more filmlike look without heavy editing.