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Lighting Effects Dialogue Box Size
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This is driving me crazy. Is there any way to increase the size of the Lighting Effects dialogue box? With a 1680 x 1050 monitor I can't see where to place the lights.
There does not appear to be anything to drag and the usual key shortcuts do nothing.
This is what I am seeing: If the image just filled the white space around it I could manage.
BTW I wonder if anyone recognises the image?
Posted at 5:15PM, 23 May 2009 PDT
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Fac-Man fucked my wife [deleted] says:
I've never looked at that filter before. It does seem to have a very thrown-together, unfinished feel to it.
No. I can't find a way to zoom the preview either. But on my 1920x1200 monitor it's fairly easy to see. I guess it all depends how big your pixels are.
Posted 37 months ago.
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...or on how good your eyesight is. Not too flash in my case.
I improved things by increasing the ambient light setting so I could see the background better, but I was still having trouble.
I was actually following a Chris Orwig Lynda.com tutorial, so I emailed Chris asking him for advice. He'll know if anyone does, but will he reply? I'll let you know. :-)
BTW Even when you think you are fairly OK with a lot of this stuff, it is amazing how much you pick up from the Chris Orwig tutorials. Totally fascinating. The only problem is he is dealing with keyboard shortcuts that would stretch a blues player. I had to use a couple of toes and my tongue for one of them. ;-)
Posted 37 months ago.
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The lighting effects filter is honestly one of the best in Photoshop. There is a reason for the extra white space around the image. You need that space to manipulate the axis for the beams. The extra space allows the focal planes of the light to bleed out. There are a number of presets with in the program, but you can create and save as many as you like. You can add multiple and varying types of lights too.
You get full control of color choice for both the light and ambient light. I think there are some tutorials arounf for that. Is it ok to add stuff here. New to the group.
Posted 37 months ago.
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Thanks for the heads up. I realised the significance of the white area around the window after posting, but I still wish the entire dialogue box could be resized.
I am guessing that it can’t, but we always find a workaround. In this case, if you hit Ctrl z and reopen the Lighting effects filter, it is set exactly where you left it, so you have a decent idea how to tweak it. Chris Orwig suggested using layer masks on the LE layer, but that seems a bit of a cop-out.
The Lighting Effects filter is something I’ve not really got into, as I have tended to use layer masks and Curves, or layer masks on the standard 50% grey dodge and burn layers - but I can see LE goes a whole lot further. Multiple lights, and colours would be hard to do with my old method.
Is it ok to add stuff here? New to the group.
Hey. I’m a Brit living in New Zealand, but I still have a lot of respect for the Marines. And it sounds like you know what you are talking about.
Posted 37 months ago.
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You are quite welcome, and thank you for the comment as well!
The Lighting Effects filter has a vast array of uses. The spot light can be used to add tons of drama to a seemingly standard photo. At the point of the light cone it is often burned out, so you have the option to extend (bleed out) past the image area. This allows the usuable gradient of the beam to interact with your image, apply the lighting you desire.
In theory when the cone of light hits a flat object, you have a "slice" of the cone...an ellipse:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellipse
The four manipulative points of each light in the Lighting Effects filter allow you to adjust the axes, and in effect alter the slice in the cone. Remember too, once you adjust the axes, you can move the light by clicking and dragging in the small color dot. If you use a white light, the dot will be white, if you use red light, the dot will be red...and so.
You can use any combination with one lighting scheme to. Sometimes a spotlight combine with an omni light will give you some pleasant results. Adjusting your intensity, and focus of each light will offer you great control. When you get a combo you like, save it off. The saved settings are universal, and will become available for any image, not just the one you are saving them in. Once you load it in, you can simply tweak it a bit for another phot...but the effect you worked hard creating is still there.
Also, and this will help so much in realism, have the portions in your image isolated. Use maksing and/or selections to pull apart the subject and background. Apply your lightind scheme to the foreground subject...then apply it seperately to the background. Shift all of the lights in the scheme diagonally away from your light source (the tip of the cone). This puts dimension in your light, which of course is how it would be in real life. If you do not shift the light, it will appear flat across the entire image, and the realism will be gone.
Add some extra shadow under the subject layer too. This is why I like selections, because you can use your selection to fill with black, feather and blur, distort appropriately, and apply as multiply. Just like an actual shadow.
Spend some time playing around with the filter. It is an awful lot of fun, and will give you very cool results. Hope it helps you out Trevor.
Sincerely,
Doug Cook
Originally posted 37 months ago.
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U.S. Marines edited this topic 37 months ago.
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See if this helps you some too...
Here is a link to the original from RJJ Photography:
...and after using a quick pass with some lighting effects filter work, you can see how easy it is to alter the colors and the grain of light. This can be done to any degree you wish to take it to as well...
![GrfxDziner.com | Huey [edited]](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2222/2273649663_aaa1ddd1d0_m.jpg)
Original size:
www.flickr.com/photos/dcmemorialfoundation/2273649663/siz...
Study the cone diagram in the wikipedia link above. Do you understand the shape of the ellipse? and why it is sliced like that? Do you know where the hot spot will bee from the light? The hot spot will be in the upper portion of that ellipse. Because of the angle in relation to the light source, the top is closer, and the light rays are both closer, and stronger. As you move further away and less of angle (oblique) to the light, the ellipse becomes more like a circle.
The Omni light always uses a circle...
Large screen cap:
farm4.static.flickr.com/3554/3564441531_c9e7f6ceff_o.jpg
You can add a darker color as the light too.
This will make very soft light...
Large screen cap:
farm4.static.flickr.com/3323/3565259412_904e071657_o.jpg
Another thing too. The lighting Effects filter stuff can be applied as some of the light blending modes, such as soft light, screen, multiply, etc. These modes apply a layer different than some of the other layer modes, and the textures of the image below comes through much better when any of these modes are selected. This is real subtle work, and can take some time. But, the general effect is alot of fun to work with. Learning the angle of the light will help a bunch in using the filter to its best.
Do you understand where a wall would be in the cone from the wikipedia page? Do you need any help with that?
Posted 37 months ago.
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Ah... the beauty of lihting effects... such a great and not commonly used used.
Anyway, you and I are out of luck; there's no way to modify the window size just as any other tool like USM...
Even Scot Kelby mentioned in one of his books... why is the windows so small? Don't get me started with it...
Posted 37 months ago.
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