Setting the style of lighting

Using the Lighting node

You can use different styles of lighting. To select the style you wish to use:

If the Node Properties window is not already displayed, choose View > Properties, and click on the Node tag:

None makes the Lighting Composite node composite the Lighting image without any lighting effects. Any blurring and tinting you have set in the Lighting node still takes place.

The Backlight and Alt-Backlight styles use the paint in the image as light, which the Lighting Composite node adds to the background (i.e. to those elements it composites behind the backlit image). Since the light is added to the background, this never darkens the background. Black areas in the backlit image do not change the background, since there is no color to add. The background is usually still visible through the added light, giving the backlit image a transparent look. The effect is, however, quite different to overlaying a semi-transparent image.

The Backlight style adds less light to backgrounds that are already bright, so colors never exceed their maximum brightness, and never need clipping.

The Alt-Backlight style simply adds all the light; colors may exceed their maximum brightness, and (if so) are clipped. This can cause "burn-out" artifacts, similar to an over exposure.

The Ambient style also uses the paint in the image as light, but the Lighting Composite node uses this light to illuminate the background. The effect is similar to applying a colored light source to the background. White areas in the backlit image fully illuminate the background, so will show no effect; but any other color darkens the background, and black areas make the background black.

: You can use this style to see only certain colors in the background. For example, if the backlit image is red, only the red colors in the background will be visible.

The Highlight style makes the Lighting Composite node increase the brightness of color components in the background by illuminating the background like the Ambient style, and then adding this effect to the background like the Backlight style. Since the light is added to the background, this never darkens the background. Black areas in the backlit image do not change the background, since there is no color to add; white areas double the brightness of the background.

: As an example of how you use the Highlight style, try applying a yellow Highlight to part of a forest background, to create the effect of a shaft of sunlight.

Using the Lighting node