Light-casting plugin

[Andrew B.]

Here is a free light-casting plugin called Luce

http://thepluginsite.com/resources/perricone/luce.htm

This one lets you click a spot in your picture, and light beams radiate from that spot. Or, it can just be parallel streams of light based on your click spot. The intensity is adjustable, and it actually works very well. There is also a shadow option, but it's broken light now. But the author expects to fix this soon.

[Stephen M]

Appears to be PC only.

Will give it a go on the PC though.

Stephen Marsh.

[Mike Needham]

Sadly I needed this post about a month ago, I bought a new plugin for the light effects filter it contained, it looks like the one you found for free would have done me - aaaargh

Stephen, although not a free plugin it is available for the Mac

http://www.digi-element.com/index.shtml

heres a quick screenshot taken from their site on it's capabilities.

[Mike Needham]

oops, seems I can't attach files in an edit.

[Ed_L]

Thanks for the link Andrew. It looks interesting, and I've just downloaded it.

Ed

[Andrew B.]

Mike,

You just gave me an idea. Why not add links to all light plugins to this thread. You already posted a link to Aurora. I'll post a couple more I know of. But these are not free.

http://www.digitalfilmtools.com/html/light_.html

http://www.humansoftware.com/pages1200/PhotoLight/HSplight11.html

[Ed_L]

I downloaded Luce, and I was a little disappointed (but it might be my computer). For the record, I'm running Photoshop 7, and I'm wondering if it works properly with this version. Anyhow, I was able to get Luce to work, but it sometimes gave me problems, and it finally froze Photoshop on three occasions. After deleting it, my problems were over. Is it a fluke?

Ed

[Andrew B.]

I've used it on a few pictures just to test it. I didn't have any stability problems. I'm using Photoshop 7.01 in Win2K.

But if you are also referring to how well one can fine-tune the light effect, it is not something with a lot of control. You pick the spot, adjust the intensity, and the light goes where it decides to go.

It seems to work best with dark pictures. I got a nice effect on two dark pictures where I streamed light from a window in one and from between trees in the other. On normal pictures it washes out the colors, unless you turn it way down and use it only to create sort of a blown-out glow spot. But there is not much call for that.

[jeaniesa]

Ed, I just downloaded it tonight. Had no problems (PS7 on XP Pro), though I was disappointed that it seemed limited to placing the light source in the center of the image. (Couldn't figure out how to change the placement.)
Jeanie

[Ed_L]

It's good to know that it is compatible with 7. Jeanie, are you clicking in the preview area to set the point? It does seem to be pretty limited in applications.

Ed

[jeaniesa]

Hey - would you look at that?! You can click in the preview area to set the source point! Thanks Ed - that makes it a LOT more useful!

Jeanie