Steve Yedlin and Rian Johnson Release Chromagraph Camera – Film Color Pipeline for iPhone Stills, Grain, Halation and a RAW Gallery

Smartphone Filmmaking

by Nino LeitnerToday

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Cinematographer Steve Yedlin ASC, director Rian Johnson and color science programmer Eric Cameron have released Chromagraph Camera, a still photo app for iPhone. The app skips Apple’s own look processing and builds each image from raw sensor data with the same custom color math that Yedlin uses on his feature films, including grain and halation. The gallery keeps full-quality scene-linear originals and applies the look non-destructively, and the app costs $12.99 / €14.99 as a one-time purchase. Let’s take a closer look.

Yedlin and Johnson have worked together since Johnson’s debut feature “Brick,” and their collaboration includes “Looper,” “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” and the three “Knives Out” films. Yedlin is also known for his long-form demos on how the look of an image comes from its preparation for display, not from the camera brand. In an Instagram post, he describes Chromagraph Camera as “simply the camera, image processing, and gallery app that we wanted for ourselves,” which the team now sells publicly on the App Store. According to the App Store listing, the app went live on October 20, 2026, and the public announcement followed a week later. Within days of the announcement, the app reportedly reached the top position in the Photo & Video category of the US App Store.

We have previously reported on iPhone camera apps aimed at filmmakers, such as Blackmagic Camera for iOS 3.5, Final Cut Camera 2.4, Kino and, more recently, Log Cam and RAW Cam. Those apps focus on video and give the user manual control over capture. Chromagraph Camera takes a different approach: it is a stills-only app with one curated look, and the controls sit after the shot, not before it.

Not a filter

The central claim of the app is that it is not a filter. According to the developer, Chromatic Applications LLC, a filter sits on top of the processing that the phone has already done, while Chromagraph starts from raw sensor data and “builds the image its own way.” Yedlin writes that the app “completely bypasses the iPhone look management and replaces it with the same custom math I use on all my films, tailored to Apple camera behavior.” In his own post on X, Rian Johnson summarized it in a similar way: the app shoots RAW, bypasses the iPhone’s look processing, and uses the same image processing that the team uses on their movies.

Yedlin calls the look “opinionated.” In his words, it is “the nuanced and idiosyncratic rendering of tonality and chromaticity (as well as grain and halation)” that he, Johnson and Cameron like. The app does not offer a choice of film stock emulations or a library of presets. There is one core look, and the user adjusts it.

This is also the practical side of an argument that Yedlin has made publicly for years. In his Display Prep Demo and the companion essay “On Color Science for Filmmakers” (2016), he states that color rendition, highlight rolloff, halation and other perceptual attributes come mostly from the mathematical preparation of the image for display, not from the camera format. In that essay, he limits the argument to high-quality capture formats and names smartphone cameras as an example of inferior acquisition devices. Chromagraph Camera now applies the same type of display preparation to iPhone raw data.

Shoot first, see the look after

The capture process is closer to a film camera than to a typical phone app. The viewfinder shows the framing, but the finished look appears only after the image is processed. The user takes the picture and then opens the gallery to see it with the Chromagraph look applied. The App Store screenshots show a simple camera screen with a shutter button, a switch between the front and rear cameras, a timer, and 0.5x, 1x and 4x lens buttons. Version 1.2.2, released on November 4, adds optional grid lines and a level in the viewfinder, plus manual aperture control on the 1x camera of the iPhone 18 Pro models.

Chromagraph is a stills-only camera. According to the App Store listing, it does not record video.

A gallery that keeps scene-linear originals

The gallery stores full-quality raw files. Yedlin specifies that these are scene-linear originals, and the app applies the look and the user’s own adjustments live for viewing. All edits stay non-destructive, so the user can change them later.

For sharing, the app exports smaller files with the look baked in, either to the iOS photo library or directly to friends. An auto-export option in Preferences sends every photo to the photo library right after capture, as a JPEG or HEIC file with the look applied.

Grading controls within the core look

The editor has four sections: Tone, Color, Texture and Crop. The App Store screenshots show the Texture section with separate Grain and Halation tabs. Grain has sliders for amplitude and grain size, plus a “Force Pixel Size Grain” switch. The editor also shows capture metadata such as shutter speed, aperture, ISO and white balance in Kelvin.

According to Yedlin, these “grading knobs” allow “pretty dramatic adjustments while keeping within that overall core look.” The developer describes the tools as intuitive yet powerful controls for color, tone and texture that keep every image true to the look at the core of the app.

If you want more background on why halation is part of so many film-emulation tools, read our article “Chasing the Glow”. On the professional side, we recently covered ARRI Film Lab 1.5, which also adds grain and halation in post.

Who is behind it?

The app comes from Chromatic Applications LLC. The company’s website says that it makes “software to empower filmmakers in their visual authorship.” Next to Chromagraph, the website lists OFX plugins that package image processing algorithms used by Yedlin for DaVinci Resolve, Baselight, Nuke and other hosts, and a lighting control system called yLumination. The company gives no release dates or prices for these products. Yedlin was also part of the program at the IMAGO Oslo Digital Cinema Conference 2025.

Current limitations

Chromagraph Camera captures stills only, and there is no video mode. The look is a single, fixed design, and users who want a choice of film emulations or a neutral starting point will not find it here. The finished look is not visible in the viewfinder, only in the gallery after capture. The app is available only on the App Store, in English, and it needs iOS 17 or later. The developer does not publish a list of supported iPhone models or details about which raw format the app records. Since version 1.2.2, the app alerts users when a camera on their phone does not support raw capture. Statements about the image pipeline come from Yedlin and the developer.

Price and availability

Chromagraph Camera is available now on the App Store for $12.99 / €14.99 / £12.99 as a one-time purchase, with no subscription. It needs iOS 17 or later. The current version is 1.2.2, released on November 4, 2026. According to the developer’s privacy statement, the app does not collect or keep personal information. More information is on the Chromagraph website.

Would you give up control at capture for one curated look from Steve Yedlin’s pipeline? And do you shoot stills on your iPhone with the native camera, or with a third-party app? Don’t hesitate to let us know in the comments below!