Mystical Lighting

AutoFx: www.autofx.com

Maureen Shannon, NJPCUG

AutoFx had added a new product to their already outstanding filters, it’s called Mystical Lighting. I planned to tell you that lighting and shadows are a very important part of photography. And that light and shadow set the tone and ambiance of the photo. Then I went to the AutoFx web site to read their press release and discovered that they said the exact same thing in their press release.  So my thoughts about this must be right on target. A picture may be worth a thousand words and they can be said and influenced by the light, shadow and tones of the photo (image). If you have ever seen light streaming through the clouds in brilliant rays to the ground and have been moved by that magical display of light than you know what I mean. It gives the whole scene a feeling that can barely be put into words. But you feel it and react to what you see. With Mystical Lighting you can add this quality of light display to your photos.

Mystical lighting has 16 visual effects to give you the ability to add the lighting and shadows to your images to get this artistic feeling that may be missing in your digital photos. The various lighting effects offer a wide array of light possibilities.  Even the FairyDust effect, which may seem more like an added effect than a lighting feature, easily changes to tiny stars in a night sky in a photo that may have none visible.  Each of the lighting effects has individual light controls that can be manipulated to create just the perfect touch in your photos. Items like the FairyDust are created along a drawn line with editable nodes (Bezier Controls) so that you can change their location or shape, add or delete points along the drawn line of the display. The lighting and shadow effects bring warmth, drama, and that mystical ambiance that change photos from common to unique.

Shadows and light effects aren’t just limited to enhancing photos. Add them to graphics you create for you web or other art projects and see how they influence the feeling you are trying to convey with your graphic. I had created an image that was dark, shades of browns with deep yellow highlights. (See image below with the thumbnail of the original) It had images of a tree and old house in the background and gold frames with varying degrees of opacity floating in the foreground. Inside one large frame I added an image of a ballerina, the house was framed by another. To bring an element of light to it I added an “Ethereal Light” “soft cast preset” behind the ballerina and in the area where there was a deep yellow light. By adding a little light to it, I focused on the ballerina by bringing highlights behind her. I added a splash of light to a dark and brooding image. The light and shadow effects include many “preset” effects that you can select from. You can either accept them as they are or use the tools to make changes. If you like the new effect you have created to can save it to the preset list for future use. The second image has a “LightCaster effect – Fanned Lights Overlapping preset, with the cast texture set to “blinds” (the light beams) and the smoke effect set to 1. Aside from presets, many effects have alternate selections that further refine and detail the light setting. For example, the LightCaster has a large selection of light beams that can be selected to tailor the lighting effect to exactly the look you are trying to achieve.

Interface Example: Radial Light Caster

Features:      

You have complete control of the settings, giving you infinite possibilities and now you can work in layers and add various effects to multiple layers. These effects are unlimited as well. This extends the ability to add more than one effect without having to exit the plug-in and return again to add another type of effect to it.  This product also works as a stand alone application. The difference here is that the stand alone will open and work on images independently and the plug-in need a host application in order to use it.

 The layer features include cloning, renaming, reordering, and full opacity blending. If you are unhappy with a layer, you can also delete it and start again. And you also have unlimited undo capabilities.  Layer types: Background Image, Selection Mask (reserved), Photo Layers, Effect Layers, Masking Layers, and Correction Layers. Four of these layers you have control over, two are reserved for the application and cannot be altered. You can also set the transparency level (opacity) for the layer.

The effects are resolution independent. This means that you can add effects to a small image and you will get the same result on a larger image.

Other features: Supports Adobe Photoshop Actions; supports marquee zoom and Pan; detailed tool tips; user defined presets can be added; file support (loading and saving) for .psd, .tif, .bmp, .jpg, and .png file formats; the user interface is customizable….you can change the colors and the desktop textures; Mystical Lighting is optimized for a single or dual processor machine (both Mac and Windows); and optimized for G4s and runs native in OS X.

Interface Example:

Mystical Lighting uses the familiar DreamSuite interface and tools…..covered in other reviews, please visit our web site (www.njpcug.org/graphics/reviews.htm) for complete details and images. This interface has been updated with an exquisite new splash screen and then the new features and capabilities are incorporated into the tool selections (such as the layers and multiple effects). The image above shows the interface using the Ethereal effect. You can see the dreamlike quality of the photo of the baby. If you create digital photo albums, greeting cards, or do professional work, you can easily see how this application will expand your artistic works. Whatever you artistic endeavor, the addition of images with Mystical Lighting added to them will be the highlight of the display.

Please visit the AutoFX web site to learn more about Mystical Lighting and their other “Visual Imaging Solutions”. More images, the full color review, and a flash demo will be available in the Graphics SIG section of our web site.  

Click here for a flash demo of Mystical Lighting.