For Lytro ILLUM and first generation Lytro cameras
Illuminator is a modern replacement for Lytro Desktop that renders higher resolution, higher quality images and videos. Import photos directly from your hard drive or SD card, and keyframe just about any setting to animate your pictures. You can also import your existing Lytro Desktop library.
Windows · macOS · Linux
A modern replacement
Lytro shut down in 2018, and Lytro Desktop was abandoned. Illuminator picks up where it stopped: a full-featured, modern app for Windows, macOS, and Linux, plus a version that runs in any modern web browser.
Illuminator renders on the GPU, so the application responds quickly as you interact with your photos.
| Lytro Desktop | Illuminator | |
|---|---|---|
| Updates | None since 2018 | Actively developed |
| Systems | Older Windows and macOS | Windows, macOS, Linux, browser |
| Apple Silicon | Not native | Native |
| Still images | Max resolution 2450 × 1634 (4 MP) | Max resolution 2460 × 1708 (4.2 MP) Upscaled 9840 × 6832 (67 MP) |
| Video | Max resolution 1920 × 1080 (1080p) | Max resolution 2160p (4K) |
| Keyframes | Camera settings | Every setting |
| Your library | Stays in the old app | Imported, edits included |
Superior results
Illuminator renders light fields at higher resolution and quality than Lytro Desktop, for both photos and video. Its full-sensor renderer accurately maps every sensor pixel, then uses additional passes to recover fine detail at up to four times the lens grid resolution. A dedicated upscaler takes things further, enlarging photos by up to 4× and video to 4K while keeping edges sharp. You can customize the upscaling method and sharpening to suit your needs.
Export stills as PNG or JPEG at up to 2460 × 1708 (4.2 MP) in native resolution, or 9840 × 6832 (67 MP) when upscaled. Create 3D images as anaglyphs, side-by-side pairs, or cross-eyed pairs. For video, export to WebM or MP4 using VP9, VP8, AV1, H.264, or H.265 compression. Choose resolutions from 1080p to 4K, or use social-ready aspect ratios including 9:16, 4:5, 1:1, and 16:9.
Animation
Lytro Desktop only supported very basic photo animation. In Illuminator, you can animate just about everything: from exposure and white balance to depth, local adjustments, and color correction.
Almost every setting has a ◆ beside it to add animation keyframes, along with f-curve controls to dial in the perfect shot.
What’s inside
Film looks, high-resolution export and a fast GPU renderer, all in one free app.
“Living Filters” from Lytro Desktop are imported as Local Adjustments you can keep editing.
Select by distance instead of drawing: an adjustment covers just one slice of the scene, and can follow the focus as it moves.
A small segmentation model (MobileSAM) runs right on your computer and finds the outline of each object, so focus and blur stop cleanly at edges.
296 film emulation LUTs included, from classic color negative to black and white and instant film, or import your own LUTs.
Photos enlarged up to 4× and video up to 4K on the GPU, with your choice of AMD FSR 1, Lanczos or smooth upscaling and adjustable sharpening.
Export video ready for Reels, TikTok, Shorts and Stories at 9:16, feed posts at 4:5 or 1:1, and YouTube at 16:9, up to 4K.
Video as WebM or MP4 with VP9, AV1, H.264 or H.265 at up to 40 Mbit/s; photos as lossless PNG or JPEG at the quality you choose.
Zoom from the whole sensor down to single pixels under the microlenses, and see which pixels a full sensor render uses and how evenly they cover the picture at the current focus.
Fill in the faint dark spots dust leaves on the sensor or lens, despeckle small bright or dark specks, and fix hot, warm and dead pixels automatically, alongside luminance, color and multi-view noise reduction.
Remove chromatic aberration, distortion, vignetting and lens flare, automatically or with your own tweaks.
Import your calibration files from your camera in the desktop app.
Plug in an original Lytro camera and browse its photos with thumbnails before importing. On Windows it is read through its disk, as Lytro Desktop does, so no driver is needed.
Measure depth with Illuminator's own method, the Classic Desktop way, or a blend of the two, with object edge detection for clean outlines.
The desktop app keeps each photo's measured depth and its latest full sensor renders next to it, so a photo you have opened before comes back in moments.
Free for (almost) any purpose under the PolyForm Shield license.
Backward compatibility
Point Illuminator at your Lytro Desktop library and it'll import every picture, along with the edits you made in Lytro Desktop, so all of your existing work comes straight across.
Library
Albums
Import Lytro Desktop library
~/Pictures/Lytro Library.lytrolibrary
Copying photos and edits…
Side by side
Lytro DesktopIlluminator 0.5.71