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Black Mist Filter Effect

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Settings are written to the URL as you change them. Nothing differs from the defaults yet.

Scatter light the way glass does

A pro-mist filter holds microscopic particles suspended in the glass. Light passing through does not all travel straight: a fraction scatters sideways and lands on neighbouring parts of the sensor. Bright sources bleed outward, deep shadows pick up a faint wash, and fine tonal separation drops without the image going soft.

That is a veil, not a bloom. Every pixel contributes, weighted by how bright it is.

Diffusion strength and veil spread

Strength is the amount of scattered light added back. Real filters are sold in grades, commonly 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, and 1, roughly matching values here from 20% to 85%.

Veil spread is the scatter distance as a percentage of the shorter image side. Small values around 1% produce a tight halo around light sources. Values above 5% behave more like shooting through fog than through a filter.

Highlight bias

At 0% every pixel contributes equally to the veil and the whole frame hazes over, close to what white pro-mist does. At 100% only bright pixels contribute and the effect concentrates on lamps, reflections, and blown highlights.

The default of 55% sits where most black pro-mist grades land: obvious around light sources, present but restrained everywhere else.

Black lift

Diffusion raises the black point because scattered light reaches areas that recorded nothing. Black lift reproduces that by moving the floor upward, up to about 42 levels at maximum, then rescaling the range above it.

This is the control that separates a diffusion filter from a glow effect. A photo with genuine 0,0,0 blacks and haloed highlights does not look like it came through glass.

Example: neon street at night

Try 58% strength, 2.8% spread, 34% black lift, 55% highlight bias, 12% warmth. Signs should bleed a soft halo while the wet road keeps its texture. If the whole image looks foggy, raise highlight bias toward 80%. If highlights blow out, reduce strength before spread.

Daylight scenes need less of everything. Strength around 25% and black lift near 15% is usually enough, since there is no dark surround for the halo to read against.

Frequently Asked Questions

It is a physical glass filter with fine particles that scatter light inside the lens. Highlights bleed into the surrounding area, blacks lift slightly, and micro-contrast drops while edge detail stays. Upload JPEG, PNG, or WebP and the export keeps the source format and dimensions.

Bloom picks pixels above a threshold and adds light outward from them. Diffusion scatters light from the whole frame, weighted toward the brighter parts, and pairs that with a raised black point. Set Highlight bias to 0% for an even veil and 100% for behaviour closer to bloom.

White pro-mist lifts contrast across the whole frame and produces a stronger overall haze. Black pro-mist uses black particles, so it softens highlights while holding more contrast in the midtones. Lower Black lift and raise Highlight bias to move toward the black variant.

It tints the scattered light. Positive values push it toward amber, which matches how warm practical lights read through a real filter. Negative values push it cool for daylight or fluorescent scenes.

Night scenes with street lights or neon, backlit portraits, windows against a dark interior, and any frame with small bright sources against darker surroundings.

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