Test featureIn planning · first results

Strobe & Depth

Set your strobe after the dive.

Strobe too weak, or pointed the wrong way? DepthLight now understands how far away every part of your photo is, and lets you place light where it belongs, after the dive.

Many possibilities. Choose an example:

1Place your strobes.

Click into the photo where the light should go. Drag it, pull the outer point to make it bigger or smaller. Up to five lights, each with its own size, strength, color and falloff.

DepthLight with the Strobe & Depth panel: a light placed on a blue-spotted ribbontail ray, with the handles to move and resize it.
Knows near and farThe depth map tells DepthLight what is close and what is behind. The light gets weaker with distance, similar to real light underwater.
Strobe, LED or warmChoose the light color, the size and how fast it falls off. Presets for one strobe, two strobes or a video light.
On your MacThe depth map is computed on your Mac, with no cloud and no upload.
The Strobe & Depth panel in DepthLight: Depth Balance sliders, presets, settings of the selected light and the depth map.

The Strobe & Depth panel.

Everything in one place, in the Pro view of the editor.

Depth BalanceStrength, near/far transition and softness. Brightness and warmth for near and far, separately.
PresetsLight the subject, one strobe left or right, two strobes, video light. Then move everything freely.
Every light on its ownStrength, size, light color (strobe, cool LED, warm or your own) and falloff with distance. Up to five lights.
The depth mapBright is near, dark is far. Computed on your Mac in a fraction of a second, from a single photo.

2Before and after.

Drag the line. Only the light was added, nothing else changed.

Blue-spotted ribbontail ray with a virtual strobe: the ray is brighter and warmer, the sand stays natural. The same ray after the automatic color correction, without extra light. Original Virtual Strobe
Blue-spotted ribbontail ray · Marsa Alam · TG-7 RAW · one light, strength 80 %

See it in the app.

Place a light, move it, and watch the photo change live.

3D Strobe · one light, placed and moved live
Static Light · two lights, strobe arm, diffuser and light color

3Try it yourself.

Two sliders, like in the app.

Blue-spotted ribbontail ray, adjustable with the sliders below.

The lights you placed. Weaker with distance.

Brighter and warmer in front, calmer behind.

Preview in the browser: blended from photos rendered by DepthLight. In the app the light is computed live.

And if you want drama.

Light on the subject, the surroundings fall softly into the dark. Same RAW, a few sliders more.

The ray dramatically lit by two strobes: warm, glowing subject, the surroundings fall into the dark. The same ray without extra light. Original Dramatic
Two strobes on the ray with depth balance, plus a darker exposure and a soft vignette – all in DepthLight.

Test feature, in planning: these are our first results. Placing lights by hand already works well. The one-click “Light the subject” is still being tuned, on dark subjects it is not convincing yet. Tell us where it shines and where it doesn’t.

Strobe & Depth brightens and darkens by distance. It does not rebuild the scene in 3D.

Join in

In testing

Next step: a strobe in 3D.

Light that comes from strobe arms like a real strobe, falls off with the real distance, lights surfaces by their angle and casts soft shadows, while the water behind stays blue. Example images follow as soon as the results are convincing.

Details for pros
  • Depth map Computed on your Mac from a single photo, without internet. Stored with every photo, so preview and export always match.
  • Depth balance Strength, near/far transition and softness. Brightness and warmth for near and far, separately.
  • Virtual strobe Up to five lights, each with strength, size, light color and falloff with distance. Presets for one or two strobes and a video light.
  • Its own edit step Switch the light on and off like any other step. It is included in the export.
  • Honest about limits A hint appears when a photo has hardly any depth, such as open blue water or sand seen from above.
  • Nothing is generated Only the real pixels are brightened and colored.

This feature’s history

All changes →