Film Director Launches $13 iPhone App: Chromagraph Camera

Rian Johnson has released Chromagraph Camera, an iOS application priced at 13 dollars that allows users to apply his film's visual style to iPhone photos.

The director of Knives Out and The Last Jedi developed the app with longtime cinematographer Steve Yedlin. The software bypasses standard Apple image processing to apply specific color grades used in Johnson's movies.

Johnson stated that he frequently uses a Leica M6 on set but finds a smartphone more convenient for daily use. He wanted a solution that matched the ease of a phone with the aesthetic quality of his cinema work.

His interest in mobile photography began in the early smartphone era. Johnson recalled buying a Nokia device that advertised its camera as a main feature. He appreciated the grainy, contrasty character of those early images, even though the quality was poor by modern standards.

He observed that as smartphone photography improved in sharpness and brightness, it lost organic character and often appeared too clinical. Before creating his own tool, Johnson tried shooting with the default iPhone camera and editing in Snapseed.

He later moved to third-party RAW camera apps but found the file management and endless slider adjustments overwhelming. Johnson described that experience as wandering through the woods and losing track of how he got there.

While manufacturers like Apple and Google have added texture and film grain tools, Johnson felt these options lacked the control of starting with a RAW image. Yedlin previously created color grading scripts for Johnson's films to mimic the look of celluloid. These tools eventually allowed Johnson to apply his movie color pipeline to still images and film scans.

The resulting app functions as both a camera and an editor. It includes settings for exposure, burst mode, and color tuning. It also allows users to import existing RAW images, enabling photographers to process their current libraries with Yedlin's film-like algorithms. Johnson said he called Yedlin and essentially bullied him into making the iPhone version.

Chromagraph went viral on social media over the recent weekend. Users praised the results compared to standard Apple defaults. Although the app is still in its early stages with some unconventional user interface elements, its processing capabilities have drawn attention.

Johnson remains passionate about traditional methods despite his new digital tool. He has set up a home darkroom and is experimenting with 8 by 10 wet plate photography. He described the analog process as a form of nerd fishing that he finds deeply satisfying.