Lumen Tool

Portrait Lighting Simulator

Camera view and Camera monitor

Updated October 14, 2026

The photo camera

The Photo camera in the Library (Camera) is the camera your photo is taken with. Its place, lens and height are saved, drawn as a wedge in Top View and printed with the plan. The other cameras under Equipment are set dressing. You can place more than one photo camera and switch between them.

Camera view

Camera view (or C) shows the set through a full-frame lens with the photo frame on top. Pick 24, 35, 50, 85 or 135 mm. Portrait switches between portrait and landscape.

Exposure

Camera view and the Camera monitor show the photo as the camera would record it. Three settings decide how bright it is, just like on a real camera:

  • Aperture, from f/1.4 to f/16. A wider aperture gives more light and less depth of field. Focus follows the model’s face.
  • Shutter speed, from 30 s to 1/8000 s. A longer shutter makes continuous light and daylight brighter. A flash hardly changes, so the shutter speed balances the room against your flash.
  • ISO, from 100 to 12800. A higher ISO makes everything brighter.

Depth of field switches the lens blur on or off; the brightness stays the same. The normal 3D view does not use these settings: it adjusts itself to the light outside, so a dark photo never hides your set. With a flash in the set you also get the flash settings next to the camera settings, see Flash, TTL and HSS.

Walking and looking around in Camera view moves the photo camera with you. Without a photo camera, Camera view starts from where you stand, and Place camera here puts a photo camera on that spot. Exit returns to the normal 3D view. Look through in a camera’s Object tab does the same as Camera view for that camera.

Camera monitor

Camera monitor opens a panel on the right with the live picture from the photo camera, while you keep working in 3D. Drag its left edge to make it wider or narrower; double-click the edge to reset it.

At the top you choose the Camera when there is more than one, and Preview sets the picture quality, adds a Composition grid and can pause the live picture. Below that are Aperture, Shutter, ISO, Depth of field, Orientation and Aspect ratio, from 1:1 to 3:1. Zoom next to the picture changes the focal length.

Under the picture, Focus names the model the camera focuses on, Aim camera points the camera at it, and Height and Tilt set the exact camera position. With a flash in the set, Camera TTL and Flash sync appear there too.

Below are two tabs. Lights lets you change each light’s output right there; a flash shows its mode, power and energy. Set list lists your objects.