Have you ever taken a picture with your phone and thought, “Damn, I wish this image looked more like a Rian Johnson film”? Who am I kidding? Of course you have! Whether you’re trying to capture the lush, razor-sharp texture of a Knives Out whodunit or the moody, tactile palette of The Last Jedi, cinematic iPhone photography has always felt a bit out of reach without jumping through a dozen post-processing hoops. Well, if you’re rocking an Apple device, your camera roll is about to get a massive upgrade.
The Ultimate Cinematic Upgrade
On Wednesday, Johnson took to X (formerly Twitter) to tease an informative promo for a slick new camera tool designed by his long-time cinematographer and master of color science, Steve Yedlin. The app shoots uncompressed RAW stills, completely bypassing the aggressive, over-sharpened image processing that Apple bakes into iOS by default. Instead, it runs your photos through the exact same custom color pipeline and image processing Johnson and Yedlin use on their own feature films.
Inside Steve Yedlin’s “Special Sauce”
According to Johnson, the project was born purely out of practical necessity. “I’ve messed with plenty of good 3rd party tools, but this is an elegant one-stop-shop, it just takes beautiful shots with Steve’s special sauce processing,” Johnson wrote. “You can fine tune the image in the app (with color, exposure, grain and halation tools) and export it to your camera roll.” He went on to credit color science coder Eric Cameron, noting they initially built it for personal use before deciding to release it to the wild.
The Catch (and My Personal Android Heartbreak)
Naturally, there are a few caveats. It’s strictly for stills, no video recording just yet, due to the technical upkeep required across evolving iPhone hardware generations. Furthermore, it’s an iOS exclusive, leaving Android users like me stranded in digital purgatory. Boo!
While iPhone photographers are already filling social feeds with gorgeous, filmic snapshots of their coffee, pets, and vistas, I’ll just be sitting here green with envy, waiting for someone to port Steve’s special sauce over to Android. Until then, grab the app and start making your life look like a feature film.
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