When a Hollywood director decides the iPhone's camera isn't good enough, he doesn't just complain about it—he builds his own app. That's exactly what happened with Chromagraph, a new photography app that has taken the internet by storm, promising to bring genuine cinematic color science to smartphone photography.
The app recently exploded in popularity after being revealed by one of its co-creators. If the name Rian Johnson rings a bell, that's because he's the acclaimed writer and director responsible for Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Looper, and the Knives Out films. Johnson took to social media to explain his motivation: he wanted an iPhone camera app that skipped Apple's computational look entirely and instead delivered images resembling the films he shoots.
So I recently badgered my cinematographer @steveyedlin into making my ideal iPhone still camera app. It shoots RAW, bypasses the iPhone's look processing and instead uses the same image processing we use on our movies. https://t.co/makZzhFd2Q
— Rian Johnson (@rianjohnson) October 28, 2026
To bring this vision to life, Johnson enlisted Steve Yedlin, his longtime cinematographer and collaborator on every one of his movies, along with their friend Eric Cameron, who handled the app's development. The result of this collaboration is Chromagraph.
What sets Chromagraph apart from the sea of iPhone camera apps is its fundamental approach. Rather than leaning on the phone's built-in imaging pipeline and slapping a filter on top, it pulls in raw sensor data and runs it through a completely custom processing pipeline—one built around the exact color science Johnson and Yedlin rely on for their theatrical work. While there's some room for adjustment, the core aesthetic is intentionally fixed, reflecting the creators' artistic preferences.
Still from Rian Johnson's latest film, 'Wake Up Dead Man'
Running the app on an iPhone 18 Pro, the first thing that stands out is the understated interface dressed in black and gold. Everything on screen will feel instantly familiar to anyone who has used a smartphone camera—this is deliberately not one of those professional apps drowning you in endless toggles and dials. Chromagraph has a singular purpose, and every option exists to serve it.
Diving into the settings reveals controls for file saving preferences, aspect ratios, default lens selection, export formats, and compression levels. There's also room to adjust the baseline look of your photos, which we'll explore shortly.
Chromagraph UI and settings
Photos taken with the app live inside it as RAW files by default. There's an option to auto-save JPEG copies, though I preferred the manual route of exporting only my favorites. Opening any shot unlocks a suite of editing tools: exposure, contrast, shadow and highlight recovery, white balance, saturation, film grain, halation, and cropping. You can even lock in a preferred crop factor before shooting, with the viewfinder adjusting accordingly. Being RAW-based, crops remain non-destructive, so the full frame is always recoverable.
Think of these adjustments as seasoning rather than a recipe overhaul. Fans of Johnson and Yedlin's work will recognize the signature style immediately: lush warmth, deep rich tones, and that dreamy softness bleeding across bright areas. Their movies aren't actually shot on film stock, but they're crafted to feel like it—and Chromagraph translates that philosophy to iPhone hardware.
Chromagraph samples (shot on the iPhone 18 Pro)
Straight out of the camera, every image carries that characteristic warmth with gorgeous golden undertones. This app has no interest in the spec-sheet wars—no desperate highlight preservation, no artificially lifted shadows chasing online approval. High-contrast edges get a gentle bloom. Detail is whatever the sensor and glass genuinely resolve, free from fake sharpening. Noise exists in the frame, partly organic and partly introduced on purpose. Chromagraph prioritizes emotional resonance and intentional imperfection over clinical accuracy.
When conditions align, the output can be breathtaking—though that's the key caveat. Bright sunshine and punchy contrast are where Chromagraph truly excels; hand it good natural light and it rewards you with gallery-quality images. The out-of-box tuning doesn't bend easily, meaning scenes either sing or fall flat. When lighting cooperates with the app's personality, minor post adjustments often salvage beautiful results, and you can permanently modify the default parameters to suit your taste.
That said, bumping into the app's boundaries happens fast. Artificial indoor lighting—fluorescents especially—can produce genuinely strange, occasionally unpleasant results with stock settings. At that point, your own judgment takes over, deliberately pushing toward cooler tones so the baked-in warmth doesn't fight against the ambient light.
iPhone stock vs Chromagraph look
The baseline color grade leans subtle and slightly desaturated. Vivid, energetic colors for subjects like dishes or fashion require aggressively dragging the saturation control, so you're probably better off steering clear of those subjects—unless muted tones are precisely what you're after.
Beyond the images, the app experience itself has rough edges. Viewing a captured photo is seamless, but returning to the viewfinder means hunting for a small camera icon up top. The app forgets your last-used lens too, defaulting back to the main camera (or your preset choice) whenever the gallery opens. The viewfinder also occasionally loaded slowly—even on the brand-new iPhone 18 Pro—and sometimes refused to load entirely.
Chromagraph's anamorphic 2.39:1 aspect ratio
These quirks make Chromagraph a decidedly situational tool. It can feel awkward in the hand, and its aesthetic doesn't flatter every subject. Yet paradoxically, shooting with it was the most enjoyable mobile photography experience I've had in ages. Constraints—whether hardware or software—often spark creativity precisely by forcing you to work harder and think differently. Updates have also been rolling out steadily since Johnson's announcement, so several complaints here may already be resolved.
Should Chromagraph be your primary or sole iPhone camera app? Definitely not. Excellent alternatives like Halide and Mood already offer the zero-processing approach, delivering clean RAW files ready for your personal editing style. Chromagraph exists to produce one very particular look. If that look speaks to you, it deserves a spot on your home screen.
