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Show HN: iPhone app takes simultaneous images from 2 lenses, fuses into 1 photo

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Nearly every iPhone carries multiple lenses on the back, so why not use them together?

Photosynthesis combines the fine detail of the zoom lens with the wider angle of the main, keeping the best parts of each to give the best photos your iPhone can deliver.

For iPhones without an optical zoom lens, Photosynthesis delivers an equally impressive experience of combining the detail of the main camera with the breadth of the ultra-wide. This is also available on Pro iPhones with zoom.

DETAIL FROM A DISTANCE

Front row detail with crowd context

Photosynthesis is perfect for concerts and other live events, giving you the clearest view of your subject without compromising on the atmosphere.

The 1x + Zoom pairing gives an incredible upgrade in quality to the centre of your photo, while 1x + 0.5x lets you add wider context to your photo without compromising on detail.

A band on a festival stage photographed with Photosynthesis: the players, their instruments and the lettering on the backdrop are all sharp.
Standard zoom Photosynthesis
A festival main stage in daylight photographed with Photosynthesis on a two-lens iPhone: the whole field of view, with the stage and the band held at real optical detail.
Standard zoom Photosynthesis

Real detail without compromise

Until now, you’ve had to choose between detail and field of view. Now you can have both in one seamless photo.

Photosynthesis gives you the freedom to capture the widest field of view possible without losing any detail if you decide to crop or re-frame later.

Every pixel Photosynthesis delivers is captured by your camera, with no generative AI use whatsoever.

The view north from Alexandra Palace, photographed with Photosynthesis: individual buildings, rooftops and trees resolve out of the haze.
Standard zoom Photosynthesis
GALLERY

Shot on iPhone.
Shot on Photosynthesis.

The centre glow highlights the otherwise seamless border between the lenses.

Not limited to long-distance shots

A face across the room, photographed with Photosynthesis.
Standard zoom Photosynthesis

From awkward selfies in your kitchen ...

At the pool, photographed with Photosynthesis.
Standard zoom Photosynthesis

... to the moments you never want to forget ...

A greyhound, asleep, photographed with Photosynthesis.
Standard zoom Photosynthesis

... capture every pixel of detail your phone can deliver.

More example photos

Foo Fighters, from the crowd, photographed with Photosynthesis.
Standard zoom Photosynthesis

Turn a great view into an even greater photo.

The far end of the platform, photographed with Photosynthesis.
Standard zoom Photosynthesis

Some test shots are more interesting than others.

The board behind the bar, photographed with Photosynthesis.
Standard zoom Photosynthesis

Who doesn’t love a photo of a chalkboard?

A band on a festival stage in the late afternoon, photographed with Photosynthesis on a two-lens iPhone.
Standard zoom Photosynthesis

This one was quite fun, I’ll admit.

Flats above the road, photographed with Photosynthesis.
Standard zoom Photosynthesis

Just look at that architecture.

A classroom wall, photographed with Photosynthesis.
Standard zoom Photosynthesis

Chalkboard, you say?

How it works

Simply press the shutter.
Let the app do the rest.

One press of the shutter captures two of your iPhone’s lenses together. The app then combines them into a single high-res photo, keeping the best detail possible for each part of the photo, using only real optical detail captured by each lens, with no generative AI.

The Photosynthesis camera screen: a bookshop aisle in the viewfinder with green brackets marking the small central area covered by the more detailed lens, and the shutter ring below reading 1 + 4x.
The overlaid brackets show the location of the more detailed lens within your shot.

Line up the shot

Frame your subject inside the brackets that indicate the more detailed lens.

Press the shutter

Photosynthesis captures from multiple lenses simultaneously, allowing for a combined capture even during motion.

Marvel at the results

Alignment and colour are matched automatically between lenses, so you get the wide framing with the inner lens’s real optical detail.

The same camera screen set to 1 + 0.5x: the green brackets cover a much wider part of the frame, because the second lens here is the main camera rather than a telephoto.
All two-lens iPhones benefit from the 1 + 0.5x pairing, while only three-lens (‘Pro’) iPhones with an optical zoom lens have both options.
In the app

A camera and custom editor built around two-lens photos

The Photosynthesis welcome screen, showing the wordmark and the line ‘Upgrade your camera without upgrading your phone’ above a photograph of a band on stage.
LearnA simple tutorial can ground you in the basics, or skip to jump right in.
The Photosynthesis result screen, zoomed into a park noticeboard, with a ‘Hold for 1x’ compare control.
CompareCompare your results to what you would have taken without Photosynthesis. The results speak for themselves.
The Photosynthesis edit screen on the Adjust tab, with exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, white point and black point controls.
AdjustThe whole set of standard editing tools, all adapted for two-lens photos.
The Photosynthesis edit screen on the Crop tab, with aspect-ratio presets, rotate, flip, straighten and align controls.
CropCapture the widest possible frame without losing any detail, then re-frame once you’ve seen the results.

Easy-to-understand framing

The brackets over the viewfinder indicate the area covered by the more detailed lens. Frame your subject inside them to capture the best detail.

The best of both lenses

The app processes both images, matching their alignment and colour, to deliver a single photo combining the larger area of the outer lens with the real optical detail of the inner one.

A fully-functional editor

Apply filters, adjust the image manually, crop and rotate as standard, with an extra layer of editing tools designed for two-lens photos. You can tweak the alignment of the inner lens, and ‘paint’ over any errors to correct ghosting or doubled subjects.

Professional exports

Export the finished photo to your Photos library or any other app, with a number of formats including a layered Photoshop (PSD) document, spatial photo, side-by-side 3D, and more.

Use our custom Photosynthesis file to export and re-import a photo to Photosynthesis without losing any layers or editing capabilities.

What you get

Shoot and edit as much as you like

Free

Everything is unlocked for the first 14 days. Following this, you can still capture and edit as many photos as you like for free.

  • Unlimited captureTake as many two-lens photos as you like.
  • Unlimited editing and viewing in-appGet the best out of every photo.
  • 5 exports a monthThe limit only applies to exporting a photo outside of Photosynthesis, as ‘flat’ finished image files.
  • Backup to iCloudOptionally backup every capture to your iCloud storage.
Photosynthesis

Unlimited

Everything unlocked.

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