Auto FX Mystical Lighting and Ambiance 2.0

Introduction

AutoFX Mystical Lighting and Ambiance 2.0 is an Adobe Photoshop-compatible plug-in that contains 27 amazing, visual effects. With these effects, you can create photo-realistic distinctive lighting, shading, atmospherics, and mood effects. You can also apply natural or studio light and shading, create shadows and generate atmospheric conditions such as rain, snow, fog, smoke and haze to any picture. Effects can be combined using the plug-in's own layers to create atmospheric effects. The plug-in uses a unique T-Path control that streams, spreads and casts the lighting, and you can brush on and off certain areas to control the lighting more intuitively across the scene.

Mystical Lighting and Ambiance 2.0 is from Auto FX Software, a company based in Birmingham, Alabama and Nashua, New Hampshire (both locations in the USA) which develops professional Photoshop plug-ins and filters. Their other Photoshop compatible plug-ins are Photo/Graphic Edges, Mystical Lighting, Auto Eye, etc.

You can download a free trial version of Mystical Lighting and Ambiance 2.0 from the Auto FX Software.

My contact at Auto FX Software for this review was Patrick Sutton. Thank you, Patrick.

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How To Use

Follow these steps to use Mystical Lighting and Ambiance 2.0:

1. Open any image in Adobe Photoshop.
2. Choose the Filter | Auto FX Software | Mystical 2... option, as shown in Figure 1, below.
3. 
   Figure 1: Mystical 2...
3. Doing so opens the Mystical 2.0 interface, as shown in Figure 2, below.
4. 
   Figure 2: Mystical 2.0 interface
5. The interface is explained below. Each area corresponds to an area highlighted in Figure 2:

A. Effects

6. This part of the interface provides all the 27 effects under the Select Effect menu. The other options in this section are File, Edit and View.

B. Parameters

7. Depending upon the effect you choose from the Select Effect list, you'll get context sensitive properties here that allow customization and fine-tuning of various parameters.

C. Tools

8. Here you get options such as the convenient Light Brush tool. This allows you to brush over the area outside the stream of light, thus giving you control over lighting conditions around and outside the stream of light. Then there are options like Effect Mask, Effect Ellipse, etc. These options may be available depending upon the effect you have chosen.

D. Layer Palette

9. The effects applied on the active image are stacked here, so that you can delete, clone, or hide any effect layer, and even add a new mask layer. You can also individually control layer opacity.

E. Brush Palette

10. In this palette, you can control the size, feathering, and opacity of the brush, and also select from an assortment of brush styles.

Preview

11. This area displays the changes that occur, as you select and fine-tune the effects.

F. Buttons

12. This section provides options to view the Original image without the effects applied. If you click the Select Layer Preset button, this opens the Presets window, as shown in Figure 3, below.
13. 
    Figure 3: Presets
14. From the Presets window, you can choose any of the available preset effects, and apply these on the active picture.
15. The Save Layer Preset button enables you to save any effect you create, so that it can be applied to other images later.
4. Choose any effect from the presets, or create an effect of your own.
5. Click the OK to apply the effect, and return to your Photoshop composition.

Here are some Before and After samples:

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Specifications

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