LightMachine is a plugin for performing all kinds of light adjustments in photos. It combines shadow/highlight, virtual lighting and color-based correction tools for performing sophisticated corrections without the need for time-consuming selections and layer stacks. It lets you selectively correct photos taken under bad light conditions or with inadequate camera settings and achieve results that rival photos taken under the best circumstances. Additionally LightMachine can achieve special effects like glows, sunsets, high key and selective b/w effects, replace one color with another and simulate polarizing filters. LightMachine works in dozens of graphics applications including Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, IrfanView, Photoshop Elements, PhotoImpact, Photo-Paint and Fireworks under Windows as well as MacOS X. It also runs natively in Photoshop CS3 and CS4 on Intel-Macs. LightMachine can be applied to 8bit and 16bit RGB images. Overview LightMachine corrects brightness, contrast, color and saturation in specific image areas independently from each other. It basically consists of four different filters each split up into a simple mode suitable for beginners and a Pro mode with more features for more flexibility. The Brightness/Contrast modes adjust brightness and contrast throughout the image which is nice as a starting point. The Shadows/Highlights modes give you complete control over dark and bright image areas and let you correct them completely independently from each other with the help of sophisticated masking options. The Virtual Studio modes allow you to place an unlimited number of shadow and light spots as if you were placing studio lights in a real photo studio. The intensity, size, ovality, angle, hardness and reflection properties of each spot can be adjusted precisely. Finally, the Colors modes let you selectively correct image objects of a specific color by clicking on them. Sophisticated Algorithms LightMachine offers brightness, contrast and saturation correction algorithms that let you bring out more details without making photos look unnatural. LightMachine's flexible shadow/highlight masking options let you quickly and easily adjust specific image areas without affecting other regions. The Virtual Studio algorithms simulate light and shadows so realistically that you will feel as though you are working in a photo studio rather than a two-dimensional photo. LightMachine offers effective methods for dealing with problematic color shifts in lifted shadows and various different saturation algorithms for avoiding color artifacts even at high saturation values. Plenty of Tools LightMachine uses a resizable dialog and its controls are logically organized in various tab sheets. Moving the mouse over each control instantly displays a detailed explanation in the Help box, so you don't need to read the manual before using LightMachine. Spilt Views let you display the original image side-by-side with the corrected version and the 17 different histograms can be useful as a guide. Complex corrections are made easy by LightMachine's Auto Mask feature, which lets even beginners quickly create suitable masks. Four different modes for displaying the used mask help even further. Removing color shifts in lifted shadows is a snap with LightMachine's one-click color picker. LightMachine's Logged Settings feature can remember the settings used for any image and automatically loads them whenever they are required again. Why LightMachine is Different LightMachine offers plenty of features for improving a much wider range of photos with better results. Other available software often only give acceptable results for the common cases, but can't cope with more difficult cases. These shadow/highlight tools usually produce contrast-burned or over-saturated results which cause an unnatural look. Unlike LightMachine, they don't let you adjust shadows and highlights really independently, add artifacts along the shadow/highlight borders or don't brighten shadows or darken highlights enough to make details clearly visible. Other lighting tools usually produce only artistic effects and are not suitable for correcting photos. They don't give you precise control over the lighting effects and offer no contrast options. They also affect the surrounding areas instead of just focusing on the target area. They do not support a Reflection feature therefore you often can't avoid blown highlights without decreasing the overall effect. LightMachine's Virtual Studio tool avoids these problems, because it was developed for producing realistic light effects for correcting photos. Other color-based correction tools don't allow to replace the color of a specific image area with any other imaginable color. They are limited to a range of colors depending on the color that needs to be replaced. Most of these tools also don't let you selectively adjust brightness and contrast and have no features for adjusting the border smoothness. LightMachine on the other hand gives you complete control for color-based corrections. Windows 64-bit Upgrade People who purchased LightMachine in May 2009 or later get the 64bit version for free. Other registered users need to upgrade to the 64bit version for $14.95. If you didn't get an upgrade email from us, please contact us with your order details.   Don't miss testing the LightMachine Demo Version on your photos and convince yourself what LightMachine is capable of... Here are some Screen Shots of LightMachine in action. With which graphics applications can LightMachine be used? See the Compatibility List. Have a look at Examples of photos that were corrected with LightMachine. Read what web and paper magazines write about LightMachine in their Reviews. Here are some visual Comparisons of LightMachine with similar tools. Convince yourself of the competitive features of LightMachine which enable you to achieve much better results. Read answers to some Frequently Asked Questions about LightMachine. Not sure which Mac version to use? See the Mac Version Selection Chart. Review the LightMachine Manual. Enter the PhotoWiz Discussion Forum if you have questions or comments on LightMachine. Download a Demo Version of LightMachine. To order LightMachine please visit our Order Page.   If you have any questions about LightMachine, please don't hesitate to contact us.