Want CNET to notify you of price drops and the latest stories?
No, thank you Accept
X
Apple WWDC: What We ExpectBest Mattress DealsAssessing Viral Sleep HacksNetflix Password SharingMeal Subscription vs. TakeoutBest Solar CompaniesVerizon 5G Home InternetBest Credit Cards

Lytro adds more ways to interact with its living pictures

Its next software update lets you change the point of view of your Lytro photos -- new and old -- as well as refocus them.

Joshua_Goldman.jpg
Joshua_Goldman.jpg
Joshua Goldman Managing Editor / Advice
Managing Editor Josh Goldman is a laptop expert and has been writing about and reviewing them since built-in Wi-Fi was an optional feature. He also covers almost anything connected to a PC, including keyboards, mice, USB-C docks and PC gaming accessories. In addition, he writes about cameras, including action cams and drones. And while he doesn't consider himself a gamer, he spends entirely too much time playing them.
Expertise Laptops, desktops and computer and PC gaming accessories including keyboards, mice and controllers, cameras, action cameras and drones Credentials
  • More than two decades experience writing about PCs and accessories, and 15 years writing about cameras of all kinds.
See full bio
Joshua Goldman
2 min read

Photos taken with Lytro's light field camera (aka living pictures) were already more interactive than a regular snapshot, letting you endlessly refocus the images by clicking on different parts of them. An upcoming software update takes the interactivity up a notch, letting you change the perspective of your shots, too.

The free Lytro Desktop software update, which rolls out December 4, adds this Perspective Shift feature, enabling Lytro users to slightly change the point of view of a living picture by clicking and dragging it in any direction.

Related stories

For example, click and hold on the picture at the top of this post and then drag the cursor around. Everything should come into focus and you can move the picture around, giving it a three-dimensional look. Move in a big circle to get the best results. (Flash is required for desktop viewing. The video at the bottom of this post demonstrates how to do it.)

If viewed on a touch-screen device, you can simply use your finger to drag it around. More examples can be found on Lytro's site.

This update also brings Lytro's twist on filter effects with nine interactive Living Filters. Once a filter is applied, it will change depending on how the picture is refocused.

The shot above uses the Line Art filter, which is not unlike those for regular photos that changes a subject into a grayscale outline. When you refocus the Lytro picture, though, the amount of detail actually changes, too. (There's a gallery with samples of the other effects on Lytro's site, too.)

Both the Perspective Shift feature and Living Filters can be applied to new and old pictures.