New technology automatically corrects lighting problems in digital

photographs.

X3 Fill Light, a new software feature, dramatically improves the image quality of
digital images affected by challenging lighting conditions. X3 Fill Light simulates the
photographic method of adding extra light to shadow regions, while preserving
highlight detail. It is a powerful yet automatic method for "dodging and burning" an
image, where each pixel is optimally adjusted in relation to surrounding pixels. The
X3 Fill Light feature is included in software designed to process the X3F files
generated by cameras which use Foveon direct image sensors for capture.

The X3 Fill Light feature is simple to apply: moving the slider in the positive direction
from the default setting of 0.0 increases the affect, as illustrated in the example
below.

Original Image X3 Fill Light applied

As the X3 Fill Light slider is increased, the relationship between the regions of an
image that contain shadows, midtones, and highlights are altered in relation to each
other. By increasing the amount of X3 Fill Light, the brightness and contrast of the
shadow regions are increased to add visibility into areas that have been
underexposed. Simultaneously, the contrast in highlight regions is increased and the
brightness is adjusted to avoid over saturation.
Examples of images where the use of X3 Fill Light is desirable are those taken in
mixed lighting conditions including shadow and direct sunlight, indoor-outdoor
scenes (such as through a doorway or window), back-lit subjects, or dramatic sky
scenes. The end results are natural looking images that map from a wide-dynamic-
range scene into a narrower dynamic range that can be properly reproduced on a
print.