Applying Illumination effects

You can use an Illumination effect to apply a sunburst or spotlights to images.

Important! These effects work on grayscale and 16 million–color (24-bit) images only. For more information about increasing the color depth of an image, see Increasing the color depth of an image.

The Lights effect uses up to five spotlights to apply lighting to an image. You can set the intensity, direction, color, and origin of the light source. You can access the Lights dialog box by choosing Effects  Illumination Effects  Lights.

• Darkness — determines the darkness of the non-illuminated areas of the image

• Light source buttons — lets you choose the spotlights you want to apply. You can also click the light dots on the image in the Before pane.

• On — lets you turn individual spotlights on or off. To turn a spotlight off, you can click the light source button (or the spotlight in the Before pane) and then unmark the On check box.

• Color — lets you choose a color for the spotlight. You can click the color box to access the Color dialog box, or right-click the color box to access the Recent Colors dialog box.

• Intensity — sets the brightness of the spotlight

• Direction — sets the lighting direction. The needle points to the direction of the light source, measured in degrees of rotation around the circle. To set the value, you can drag the needle, click in the circle, set or type a number in the control, or click the spotlight in the Before pane and drag its center arm.

• Horizontal — positions the light source horizontally. For each light, a value of 0 indicates the center of the image. Positive values produce movement to the right, and negative values produce movement to the left.

• Vertical — positions the light source vertically. For each light, a value of 0 indicates the center of the image. Positive values produce upward movement, and negative values produce downward movement.

• Scale — controls the size of the image area that is covered by light

• Smoothness — determines the smoothness of the transition from the light area to the dark area at the edge of the cone. At lower settings, the edge is sharp. Increasing the value produces a more gradual transition.

• Cone size — sets the width of the light, or cone size. As you increase the size to 89, the cone widens. You can also alter the width by dragging either handle of the light source in the Before pane.

• Asymmetry — lengthens or shortens the asymmetry

The Sunburst effect simulates the appearance of an image and light source viewed through a camera lens. You can adjust the light origin, the amount of radiating light, and the brightness of the halos, or glare spots. You can access the Sunburst dialog box by choosing Effects  Illumination Effects  Sunburst.

• Color — lets you choose a color for the effect. You can click the color box to access the Color dialog box, or right-click the color box to access the Recent Colors dialog box.

• Brightness in the Light spot group box — controls the strength of the light source

• Horizontal — indicates the horizontal location of the light origin. A value of 0 corresponds to the far left side of the image, and a value of 100 corresponds to the far right side of the image. You can also set this value by dragging the crosshairs in the Before pane.

• Vertical — indicates the vertical location of the light origin. You can also set this value by dragging the crosshairs in the Before pane.

• Density — determines how many rays of light radiate from the light source

• Brightness in the Rays group box — controls the lightness of the light rays

• Brightness in the Circles group box — controls the visibility of the halos, or glare spots