Your Next Photo Coach: Adobe's Project Indigo Uses AI to Critique Your Shots

Imagine taking a photo and having an expert instantly tell you what’s wrong with it and how to make it better. Adobe is now rolling out this exact feature in its experimental iOS camera app, Project Indigo. This isn't just about fancy filters; it's about an artificial intelligence that provides professional feedback on your pictures, offering suggestions on everything from framing to lighting.

The app's new AI capabilities dive deep into your shots, giving you what it calls a "professional" opinion. It will analyze elements like your composition, how light plays in the scene, the color balance, and even the emotional impact of the image. Beyond just critiquing, it can also suggest ways to reshoot, offering real-time tips for improving exposure or adjusting objects in your viewfinder before you even press the shutter again.

If you’ve already captured the moment, Project Indigo doesn’t stop there. It provides actionable advice on how to enhance your existing photos using tools found in Adobe Lightroom. These are specific, clear steps, not vague ideas, which could help you learn genuine photography skills as you edit.

But the AI magic doesn't end with critiques. The app also introduces powerful editing features, like advanced object removal, which lets you easily erase unwanted elements from your photos with remarkable precision. Forget awkwardly circling objects; this AI gives you toggles for common nuisances like background people, trash cans, wires, or even entire vehicles. You can even describe a custom object to remove, and it performs the edit flawlessly.

This experimental Project Indigo app comes from a team led by Marc Levoy, who previously helped develop the impressive camera tech in Google's Pixel phones. His approach with Indigo focuses on making AI-powered edits simple and direct, often through easy-to-use buttons rather than complex text prompts. He believes this makes the tools more accessible and less prone to generating inconsistent results.

Project Indigo was first launched last year as an experimental app for iOS, offering advanced camera controls and multi-frame photo processing. This latest update pushes the boundaries, integrating sophisticated AI models to go beyond traditional editing. Adobe is using Google's Gemini-based Nano Banana for these features, but the platform is designed to be flexible, allowing for future integration of other AI models, including Adobe's own Firefly.

You should care about these advancements because they democratize professional photography knowledge and editing power. Whether you’re a casual phone photographer or an aspiring artist, this AI coach could help you sharpen your eye and elevate your images without needing years of experience or expensive equipment. This innovation could transform how we learn and interact with our camera apps, making complex edits feel intuitive and offering a genuine learning curve.

What happens next for Project Indigo is still taking shape. These cutting-edge features are currently in a testing phase, accessible only to a select group of users. It is important to remember that experimental features sometimes do not make it to a wider public release. However, this project signals a clear direction for Adobe and the future of mobile photography: smarter, more intuitive AI assistance.

Do you think an AI camera coach could genuinely help people improve their photography skills, or do you believe creative feedback needs a human touch? With AI tools making complex photo edits so simple, do you think it enhances creativity or risks taking away from the art of photography itself?

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Filed under: Adobe, ProjectIndigo, AICamera, MobilePhotography, PhotoEditing