ScatterLight Lenses (SLL) adds light effects to images. In doing so, SLL provides the ability to take your simple pictures and create "artistic" photos. At least to some degree. The artistic effects come from soft focus on parts or all of the image and/or extra glow or star effects on brighter regions of the image.

Like all of the Andromeda Software filters, you bring the filter up by having an image open in Photoshop and selecting from the Filter Menu -> Andromeda -> ScatterLight Lenses. Once opened, the user may feel like they have inadvertently opened Virtual PC or the like as SLL looks like a straight port from the PC version.

The layout of the window is typical of Andromeda software with the main image to the left, controls to the right and a magnified view in the upper right. What's different in SLL is the magnified view is supposed to be what's inside the small red rectangle found on the main image. If you look at the main image above you will observe a small red rectangle covering the eyeball of the griffin. In the upper right magnified view you will see that the section of the image includes the entire eye orbit and much more. There is no way to correct and/or vary the amount magnified. Also, I cannot figure out what the magnification is supposed to be nor can I figure out what the purpose of the magnified view is for. At no point did I ever find myself going to the magnified window to get a better idea of what the effect was doing to the current image.

There are two ways to view your main image: either on a 100 % (1:1) view or the complete image in whatever percent is necessary so that the entire image can be seen in the window. There is no way to increase or decrease the size of any Andromeda filter windows nor to vary the percent viewing of the image. I also found considerable difference in how the effects were being represented between the "fill image" window and the 1:1 image.

On the right hand side of the SLL window is a statement "Select a Preset." Below this is a drop down menu with a variety of choices, and some have significantly more choices than others. See below

There are four main types of effects (quoted from the manual):

1. DreamOptics lens effects range from subtle to dramatic. They refine the richness and texture of your images and add a soft dreamy glow to landscapes and stills.
2. SoftFocus lens effects provide a small degree of overall softening and refinement most often seen in professional portraiture.
3. SoftDiffuser lens effects provide a larger degree of overall softening and refinement producing fog-like effects.
4. StarLight lens effects focus light over the brightest areas of your image to create starlight effects. The filter offers many different star patterned templates. Most dramatic when used with images with focused points of light.

If you look at the image above, you will see the top selection shows "AutoSave." I would love to tell you what that does, but it is not mentioned in the PDF Manual and I could not figure out what it does. The bottom selection, "My Presets," is the repository of any pre-made filter selections you have customized.

As can be seen in the drop down selections above, the Stars option recommends you to make a selection in the image before starting the filter. This is done with (for example) the Magic Wand Tool by clicking on the highlighted regions you wish to have show up as stars. (Be sure to turn on or off the Contiguous selection if you wish all highlighted regions be available or only one region (e.g., an eye). As can be seen below, the griffin is now "magical!!"

You may wish to compare this image with the first screen shot as it shows the image filling the window as opposed to the 100% (1:1) shown above. Also, this image shows the selections of the Expert Mode which provides more sliders for varying whether the effect is Course or Fine and how much of a "Glow" amount. The specific enhancements vary with the various presets. Lastly, this image also shows the redrawing process when you change a setting. The redraw line (horizontal) is seen just below the top of the pedestal. You do not have to wait for a redraw to complete itself before making a variation.

The biggest problem I had was the lack of desired control. For example, I wanted parts of the griffin to "twinkle" with colored lights. Unfortunately, I could never find a happy medium to decrease the amount of glow washing out the image and having colored twinkly starts around the griffin's image. As you can see below, on the left was lots of colored twinkly starts but with a very washed out image. If I decreased the amount of glow, there was not a twinkle to be found.

While there are a good variety of preset effects, there is no guidance and/or warning of what any of the presets are going to do. Thus, a lot of time is wasted playing and experimenting trying out each preset to see how they will work with any given image. Admittedly, any of the presets are only a starting point for further experimentation. However, as a matter of time savings I'd like a fair idea of where I'm generally going before I start on any give journey. In addition, I'd like to know generally what kind of image is better for one effect than another. That is, if one effect is recommended for people while another is recommended for forests while a third is recommended for still life, let me know so I know where to start from.

Sadly I found ScatterLight Lenses a lost opportunity. What it can do it doesn't do well enough (and is fairly limited in what it can do). And there is also the issue of insufficient information on what it can do and what it offers.

• RedEyePro Filter
• LensDoc Filter
• VariFocus Filter
• Perspective Filter

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