Lucis Pro 6 does everything LucisArt 3 ED/SE does and much more
LucisArt 3 is an Adobe Photoshop plug-in developed from some Lucis Pro 6 presets. Lucis Pro 6.0 is an Adobe Photoshop plug-in that implements the full Lucis algorithm and give you full access to image content.
The most important difference: Lucis Art 3 ED/SE works in Single Channel Mode only. That means it processes the entire image in one shot. Lucis Pro 6 has Single Channel Mode and Split Channel Mode. With Split Channel Mode you can select and alter the intensity information in each color channel separately. This gives you incredible control over contrasts and amazing creative flexibility. You can quickly and easily perfect the contrast in each RGB channel to create better images, especially HDR images. Lucis Pro 6 also has an Assign Original Image Color slider so you can remove all or a percentage of the color shifts resulting from Lucis processing in Single Channel Mode or Split Channel Mode.
Each RGB channel contributes 1/3 of the image contrast. How the contrast information in each channel overlaps determines detail and color. In Split Channel Mode you can view and alter the contrast information in each channel. You can treat them like separate gray scale images and just know when they are combined the effect of any one channel will be diminished by 2/3. In many images the red channel can be enhanced more than the other channels. The blue channel may need to have some noise smoothed using the Smooth Detail Slider.
If you find a setting in Single Channel Mode that you like, and try selecting Split Channel Mode and use the same slider settings on each color channel. With this technique you can brighten the colors in an image. This is because even though each channel has the same Lucis slider settings the contrast in each channel is different so each channel is enhanced a little differently. So when the channels are combined the colors shift. This color shift can be reduced or eliminated by using the Assign Original Image Color slider.
In terms of creating surrealistic images, Split Channel mode provides unlimited flexibility. The Usage Tips page has a lot of examples. So so the links in the white text on the Home page. These links include:
Lucis Pro 6.0 is a thousand times more powerful and flexible than LucisArt 3 ED/SE and it is just as easy to use.
How to replicate the LucisArt 3 ED using Lucis Pro 6.0
How to replicate the LucisArt 3 SE special effect Winslow using Lucis Pro 6.0
How to replicate the LucisArt 3 SE special effect Sculpture using Lucis Pro 6.0
How to replicate the LucisArt 3 SE special effect Plaid using Lucis Pro 6.0
How to replicate the LucisArt 3 ED using Lucis Pro 6.0
Both LucisArt 3 ED and Lucis Pro 6 have the Enhance Detail slider. The Enhance Detail slider can be altered in increments of 2 intensity levels. Therefore LucisArt 3 has up to 125 Enhance Detail slider settings because it only processes 8-bit images. Lucis Pro has up to 125 Enhance Detail slider settings for an 8-bit image and up to 16,000 settings for a 16-bit image (Photoshop handles 16-bit images as 15-bit images).
Figure 1: The Lucis Pro UI showing the Enhance Detail slider.
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How to replicate the LucisArt 3 SE special effect Winslow using Lucis Pro 6.0
The Winslow setting LucisArt 3 SE simply enables the Smooth Detail slider. Lucis Pro 6.0 also has the Smooth Detail slider. The LucisArt 3 SE and Lucis Pro 6 Smooth Detail sliders are both able to be altered in increments of 2 intensity levels. Therefore LucisArt 3 has up to 125 Smooth Detail slider settings because it only processes 8-bit images. Lucis Pro has up to 125 Smooth Detail slider settings for an 8-bit image and up to 16,000 settings for a 16-bit image (Photoshop handles 16-bit images as 15-bit images).
Figure 2: The Lucis Pro UI showing how to achieve the LucisArt 3 SE special effect Winslow
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How to replicate the LucisArt 3 SE special effect Sculpture using Lucis Pro 6.0
Sculpture is the result of using both sliders to enhance contrast patterns in the image. Lucis Pro 6 has both the Smooth Detail slider and Enhance Detail slider are present so you can adjust the image any way you want to. With LucisArt 3 SE you can move the Smooth Detail slider and then the Enhance Detail slider (which is not accessible) is altered by a fixed amount. In order to replicate the Sculpture special effect with Lucis Pro you must leave the Smooth Detail slider setting at 1 and move the Enhance Detail slider to the left to the setting shown in the table below, then check Tie Together. Tie Together keeps the difference between the two slider values constant. So as you move one slider the other slider moves too. With Lucis Pro you can have many slider value differences, not just 4. Just uncheck Tie Together when you wish to change the difference between the two sliders.
Figure 3: The Lucis Pro UI showing how to achieve the LucisArt 2 special effect Sculpture
LucisArt 3 SE Special Effect Sculpture
Strength Settings from left to right |
The equivalent Lucis Pro setting- move the Enhance Detail slider to the value below and then click on ‘Tie Together” |
First Setting |
51 |
Second Setting |
31 |
Third Setting |
11 |
Fourth Setting |
5 |
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How to replicate the LucisArt 3 SE special effect Plaid using Lucis Pro 6.0
During Lucis processing, the Lucis algorithm compares each pixel to every other pixel along hundreds of radial lines called scan lines. In Lucis Pro 6 you can alter the number of scan lines in multiples of 16 (called Scan Lines). So if the number of Scan Lines is set to 1 then the Lucis software is using 16 radial lines through each pixel to compare its value to every other pixel value. In LucisArt 3 the number of Scan Lines is equal to 32 to reduce radial line artifacts that can sometimes occur when an image is drastically enhnaced, such as smoothed a great deal or making the difference between the Smooth Detail and Enhance Detail slider very small. Note that the number of Scan Lines in Lucis Pro 6 can be set up to 99 to eliminate radial line artifacts should they occur.
Plaid is basically Sculpture with some radial artifacts caused by drastically lowering the number of Scan Lines.
In order to replicate the Plaid special effects with Lucis Pro you must 1) change the Preview Scan Lines and Processing Scan Lines to 1 for Plaid 1, to 2 for Plaid 2 and to 3 for Plaid 3, 2) move the Enhance Detail slider to the left to the setting shown in the table below, and 3) check Tie Together. Tie Together keeps the difference between the two slider values constant. So as you move one slider the other slider moves too. With Lucis Pro you can alter the number of Scan Lines from 1-8 for an increasingly faint plaid effect (Scan Lines above 8 make the radial line artifact to faint to be able to see for most Lucis settings) and have many slider value differences, not just 4. Just uncheck Tie Together when you wish to change the difference between the two sliders.
Figure 4: The Lucis Pro UI showing how to achieve the LucisArt 3 SE special effect Plaid 1.
LucisArt 3 SE Special Effect Plaid
Strength Settings from left to right |
The equivalent Lucis Pro setting- move the Enhance Detail slider to the value below and then check "Tie Together” |
First Setting |
51 |
Second Setting |
31 |
Third Setting |
11 |
Fourth Setting |
5 |
Both LucisArt 3 ED/SE and Lucis Pro 6 have a Mix slider.
