Knoll Light Factory for Photoshop v3.2, from Red Giant Software, is a highly specialized plug-in. This program allows for the creation of incredibly intricate and detailed lens flares, along with a few other lighting effects. Now I know that photoshop has a "lens flare" filter, but honestly, if you find yourself wishing for more options, you owe it to yourself to look into Knoll Light Factory.

Knoll Light Factory is very easy to start using. It features over 100 preset lens effects to suit most occassions. The real power of this software comes from the ability to tweak each preset, changing every aspect of your lens flare. You can even create your own lens flare from scratch. You may click on any image in this review to view it full size.

Above is a screencapture of the work area for Knoll Light Factory. This is the default appearance for the "chroma lens 2" preset. On the left you can see the list of presets available for use, and you can save and load your own or others custom presets from the buttons below. On the bottom you can adjust the size of the lens flare itself, its brightness, color, and zoom in and out of the image preview. You can also set a layer to "obscure" the lens flare, replicating the effect of the sun peaking around the edge of a building for example. The panel on the right displays the individual elements of the lens flare. Clicking on each element opens a set of sliders to edit the parameters of the given element, where size, shape, distribution, and other parameters can be customized. This is also where you can add new elements to a lens flare.

If you compare the element parameters in the new interface photo above, you will notice the changes I made to the first Chroma Hoop element. Moving just a few sliders can easily customize each individual element to your liking. Notice the difference in the two preview images after making just a few changes.

Mouse over the photograph above to see the image before and after applying a lens flare with Knoll Light Factory. Please note that the diagonal lines are a watermark for the trial version of this software and will not appear in the retail plug-in.

Here is another example of the power of Knoll Light Factory. Above, we have Mr. Scott Kelby belting out a hit at Photoshop World 2010 in Orlando. For this image, I used the preset "rock concert 2," which is a great representation of the lighting in many stage shows. You can see Knoll Light Factory adds a much more dramatic effect to the photograph. The addition of multiple lighting effects was achieved by first converting the photograph to a smart object. If you aren't already using smart objects, here is another great reason to jump onboard. Smart objects also give you the abilitiy to go back and move or change each lighting effect if you later decide it isn't exactly what you had in mind.

The examples I have given are but a few possible uses of Knoll Light Factory for Photoshop. Using the different presets and creating your own flares, the possibilities for creativity are limitless. I have only come across one drawback when using this program, which is you cannot toggle between the original image and the lighting effects in the editing window. While this isn't a huge deal, it is something for Red Giant Software to improve upon in the future that this reviewer would appreciate. That being said, I can think of no reason for any photoshop user to be without this program, especially if lighting effects are something you work with heavily. Knoll Light Factory for Photoshop v3.2 retails for $149, the upgrade is availble for users of the previous version for $99.