Render

Render

3D

A stereo pair from two viewpoints across the lens.

• Show 3D shows the picture in 3D while you edit.
• 3D type: Anaglyph (red / cyan glasses), Side by side (parallel viewing) or Cross-eyed.
• Baseline: how far apart the two viewpoints are.
• Save 3D image saves the pair as an image, in the Photo File format.

Quality

• Resolution: the picture's resolution while editing, 1× (fast), 1.5× or 2×.
• High quality depth map: sharper depth edges that match the photo, about twice as slow to measure. Off, the faster depth map is used.
• Full resolution (F): renders a high resolution still from every pixel of the sensor. Scale sets its size (2×, 3× or 4× the lens grid) and Detail recovery adds passes that bring back more fine detail (slower). Render starts it.

Speed

Rendering runs on the GPU (WebGL 2); without it, on the CPU, much more slowly. On computers with two graphics chips (many laptops) ILLUMinator asks for the faster one. While you drag a slider or the picture, strong depth of field blur is drawn as a quicker draft; the finished picture follows when you let go. Histogram and Info shows the renderer in use and, where the browser can measure it, the GPU time per view.

Photo

• File format: PNG (lossless, bigger files) or JPEG (much smaller files). For JPEG, JPEG quality (50 to 100, 92 by default) sets how much detail is kept.
• Size: how much saved photos and 3D images are enlarged: Native (as rendered), 1.5×, 2×, 3× or 4×.
• Upscaling: how they are enlarged: Lanczos (sharp), which keeps edges crisp, Smooth, softer, or FSR 1, AMD's edge-following upscaler. Used when Size is larger than Native; the Sharpen setting under Upscaling applies too.
• Save PNG (or Save JPEG) saves the picture as shown, at that size.

Video

• File format: WebM (plays in browsers and most players) or MP4 (plays nearly everywhere).

• Size: 1080p, 1440p or 4K (2160p) keep the shape of the crop, with that many pixels on the short side. The Social media sizes have a fixed shape and take the largest centered part of the picture with it:

  • 9:16, 1080 × 1920: Instagram Reels, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Stories (and 2160 × 3840 for 4K vertical)
  • 4:5, 1080 × 1350: Instagram and Facebook feed posts
  • 1:1, 1080 × 1080: square posts
  • 16:9, 1920 × 1080: YouTube, X, LinkedIn (and 3840 × 2160 for YouTube 4K)

  For a part of the picture other than the center, first crop to the same shape (Crop → Aspect ratio).

• Upscaling: how each frame is brought to that size: Lanczos (sharp), Smooth or FSR 1. Frames larger than the video are reduced with a filter that keeps fine detail from flickering.

• Compression: the codec. WebM: VP9, VP8 or AV1; MP4: H.264, H.265 (HEVC) or AV1. Only the kinds this browser or computer can record are offered; the others are marked not available here. H.265 depends on the computer's video hardware.

• Quality: the video's bitrate, 1 to 40 Mbit/s (16 by default). Higher keeps more detail and makes bigger files; for 4K, 30 or more works well.

• Export video saves the animation, at the current Resolution, or with Full resolution on, every frame rendered from the whole sensor with its Scale and Detail recovery. See Exporting.

Upscaling

Settings for every enlarged picture, photo or video. The method is chosen under Photo and Video: Lanczos (sharp), a filter that keeps edges crisp; Smooth, the softer ordinary enlarging; or FSR 1 (AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 1), which enlarges along the edges it finds and then sharpens with its own contrast-adaptive sharpening. All three run on the graphics card, or on the processor where WebGL 2 is not available (slower). When a picture is made smaller, FSR 1 uses Lanczos.

• Sharpen: sharpens the enlarged picture to bring back crispness lost in enlarging; 0 for none (25 by default). With FSR 1 it sets the strength of FSR's own sharpening. It has no effect at Native size.

Enlarging adds pixels, not detail. For the most detail, render with Full resolution and enlarge that.