Mystical Lighting
Mystical Lighting enables you to add lighting and shading effects to your photos. In total you get 16 visual lighting effects with over 400 presets, all designed to make images look more dramatic or visually interesting.
Among the effects are edge highlights, soft diffused lighting effects, and even glowing fireflies that can be added to the image. The Surface Light feature can cast light as if through objects on to the background or across the whole picture, while Mottled Background gives a painted canvas effect which makes an attractive backdrop for a portrait.
There are dozens of features in Mystical Lighting to help the user, including adjustable previews with a 1600% marquee zoom capability, layers, unlimited undos, visual presets, masking and dynamic effect controls. You can save and replay your most successful effect settings, reducing the time it takes to enhance further images. Memory Dots recall your previous settings: just click on one of them to go back in time.
Comment
The effects are called: Edge Highlights, Ethereal, FairyDust, Flare, Light Brush, Light Caster, Mist, Mottled Background, Radial Light Caster, Rainbow, Shader, Shading Brush, ShadowPlay, Spotlight, Surface Light, Wispy Mist.
Mystical Lighting is one of the best of all special effects packages. Reviewers gave it a high rating when it first appeared, although many of them complained about the interface which is non-standard in Photoshop plugin mode. The Memory Dot undo is cute, but limited. However, the effects themselves are outstanding if you have the skill to use them properly.
Tech info
- Plugs into: Adobe Photoshop 4.0 - CS; Elements 1.0 or higher, and compatible editors
- OS: Windows 98 onward; Mac OS 9.0, native in OS X or higher
- Price level: Approx. $180
Auto FX Software
Auto FX Software has been creating award-winning Adobe Photoshop plugins since 1994. The company is based in Birmingham, Alabama.
From the same vendor:
- Auto Eye
- DreamSuite
- Photo/Graphic Edges
- Pixplug
- Pixtivity
- Xtivity
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