COMPANY: ICT | URL: www.lucisart.com | TYPE: Standalone | PLATFORM: Windows | PRICE: No longer available
Sales of Lucis Pro ended on May 9, 2008 at 3pm EST. Its replacement, LUCISART PRO, is scheduled to be released in August 2008.

The new advanced LucisArt Pro is intended for professional photographers and will be priced accordingly ($595 retail, with a $60 "plugsnpixels" discount code available for new customers and for those who purchased any LucisArt product prior to January 1, 2007).
Unretouched original (above)
Lucis Pro is a patented image-processing application that gives artists incredible access to image content. Images often contain hundreds to tens of thousands of contrast levels. Our eyes can only differentiate 32 levels of contrast. Therefore, fine contrast variations are only partially recognized as textures our eyes can't resolve. With Lucis Pro, you shift the relative emphasis of image contrast variations. Emphasize small, midrange or large contrasts. Transform your digital photographs into your artistic vision.

Lucis Pro is fast, easy to use, fun and flexible. There are only two sliders. One slider increases the emphasis of small contrast variations (detail). The second slider increases the emphasis of large contrast variations (large features). Using both sliders provides access to mid-range contrast patterns. Processing an image multiple times creates your own unique effects.

Using the two cursors (sliders) in Preview Mode, select the range of contrast variances to view. Lucis compares each pixel to every other pixel along hundreds of radial lines in two directions to map out contrast variances. Contrast variances within the selected range are enhanced and contrast variances outside the range are diminished. The relative emphasis of contrast information is shifted, but information is not thrown away. Thus, Lucis reveals detail that other image-processing methods simply can’t.

Lucis processing only effects the intensity information in an image. To process a color image, Lucis converts the RGB (Red, Green and Blue) information to HSL (Hue, Saturation and Luminance). Lucis processes the Luminance information, and then combines the new Luminance (L) with the unaltered Hue and Saturation. The HSL information is converted to RGB. Color images will experience interesting color shifts as Lucis extracts the image detail.

Multiple Luminance Channel Processing
Lucis Pro will transform the overall intensity information in the image using single luminance channel mode. Or, for custom results, you can choose to modify the intensity information on each RGB channel separately using Multiple Luminance Channel mode.

The Preview Window for Multiple Luminance Channel Processing has a check box marked "Display Composite Image" directly under the preview window. With that box checked, the preview window shows the combined result of the selected Lucis Processing. If the box is unchecked, then only the grayscale information of the selected channel will be visible.

Looking at the grayscale information in each channel can give you valuable information about how the image will look when the composite button is selected. You can look at the balance of detail and color in each channel and manage the variation. If you are enhancing a portrait, then you would want approximately the same amount of contrast and detail in each channel. This does not mean that you process each channel with the same settings. When you think each channel has a balance of contrast and detail, check the composite button to view the result. If the image has too much of one color, then select that channel and either move the Big Cursor Slider to the right or the Small Cursor Slider to the left to fine-tune the color and detail.

Reduce Image Noise
Smoothing the blue channel a small amount improves image quality, as noise is usually located in the blue channel.

Enhance Features
If you have an image with a striking feature that primarily uses only one color, try using Multiple Luminance Channel mode and only enhance that one color. For example, you might have a picture of a robin and only enhance the red. If you are using this method, uncheck the boxes marked "C" in the User Interface or else the remaining luminance channels will be contrast-stretched.
Treated with Lucis Pro (above and below)