The read-out

The reading starts the moment the picture lands. It takes a few seconds, and a bar under the empty frame shows how far along it is.

In plain words

On the right you get the read-out in plain words.

Main light estimates the direction and broad height of the dominant light. It is left out when the face is too dark or the direction itself cannot be read. A rough comparison is explained beside the estimate. “Estimate” does not mean the original lamp position has been recovered.

Shadows describes how dark the shadows look in the photo. Background, when readable, describes the backdrop. These describe the picture, not the power of the original lights.

Eye reflections tells you whether matching reflections were found in both eyes and used to check the direction. It also explains when the eyes are too small or the reflections disagree.

Suggested pattern names a starting setup in the simulator, such as Rembrandt or butterfly. It does not identify the original lighting arrangement.

The Lab currently leaves out rim-light detection, lamp count and modifier size because these cannot be identified reliably enough. A lamp that is not identified may still have been present.

All the details

Under All the details you find a suggested key position and the brightness gap between light and dark face areas in stops. This contrast is the brightness difference between sampled face areas after decoding the image tones. Hair, face shape and image editing can affect it. It is not the original key-to-fill lighting ratio and does not tell you how many lamps were used.

If the camera wrote its settings into the file, they show up here under Taken with.

Recreate this look

Beside the view from above, practical steps explain where to start with the main light, how to adjust the nose shadow, and how to bring detail into the shadows. They follow the setup you selected. They are advice for trying the look yourself and do not change the preview or claim to recover the original equipment.