Lighting effects

About lighting

Lighting effects simulate ambient, point, directional, and spot lighting in your design. You can supplement the single light source with additional light sources for more advanced lighting control; different light source types can be used in combination, each being independently configured and positioned using on-screen handles.

Affinity Photo also lets you create lighting effects from 3D bump maps made from texture inherent in any image.

Source types

Different source types give dramatically different results. The types are best imagined with a few examples.

Spot: Casts a elliptical beam of light focusing on a specific subject of interest, like a torch.
Point: Casts omnidirectional light, like a light bulb.
Directional. Casts light directionally from infinity, e.g. from the sun.

Lighting effects can also be applied as a non-destructive, live filter.

Settings

The following settings can be adjusted on the context toolbar:

Ambient—Sets the level of uniform 'background' lighting. An adjacent Colour option sets the ambient light colour.
Specular—sets the level of light reflected from the surface that reflects in a single outgoing direction (rather than being diffused), to form a highlight (hotspot). An adjacent Colour option sets the specular reflection colour.
Shininess—controls the spread of the specular reflection above. Set the value lower for larger and more widespread highlights; higher for smaller, sharper highlights.
Diffuse—sets the level of diffused 'scattered' light reflected from the surface. Higher values reflect more light.
Light—Tap to select a point light source. You can Add, Delete or Duplicate additional light sources.
Light Type—selects the light source type (see above).
Colour—selects the light source colour.
Distance—selects the light source distance from the page.
Texture—Creates texture from the image itself.

For 3D Bump Maps:

Load Texture—tap to load an image that you want to convert to a 3D bump map.
Opacity—alters the transparency of the texture.
Clear—removes any applied map.
Fit Width—When enabled, the texture image is stretched/shrunk horizontally to the main image. When disabled, the texture image retains its native width.
Fit Height—as for Fit Width but for the texture image's height.

To apply a spot light:

From the Filters Studio, select Lighting.
Navigate the context toolbar, and choose a Light Type of 'Spot'.
Drag the on-screen handle at the apex of the 'fan' shape to adjust the distance and direction of the light.
(Optional) Drag the Elevation handle situated along the centre line to set the height of the spot light above the page.
(Optional) Drag the outer and inner handles at the end of the fan to set the outer and inner cone, respectively.

To apply a point light:

From the Filters Studio, select Lighting.
Navigate the context toolbar, and choose a Light Type of 'Point'.
Reposition the default point light by dragging the centre handle over a subject of interest.
Drag the circle's edge inwards or outwards to set the light's distance from the light position.

To apply a directional light:

From the Filters Studio, select Lighting.
Navigate the context toolbar, and choose a Light Type of 'Directional'.
On the context toolbar, drag the cross-hair within the Direction dial.

To load a 3D bump map:

On the context toolbar, tap Load Texture, navigate to, then select your image.
Adjust Texture to set the amount of texture displayed.

About lighting

Source types

Settings

SEE ALSO: