Living Filters lets you apply stunning interactive special effects to your living pictures. These are filters like you’ve never seen before – filters that were never before possible. Living Filters uses light field capture to react to every click of the computer mouse with a playful response that shows off your unique style and imagination. There are nine creative filters, including the Crayon filter shown on this picture, that let you add drama, whimsy or artistic flair to your pictures.

You’ve probably played with popular filter apps that apply one effect to the whole photograph. For example, a black and white filter makes the entire photo black and white, or the app may combine effects to vignette the edges and boost the brightness in the middle. The results are static: every viewer sees the same result and the filter’s effect never changes.

Lytro’s Living Filters feature is different – more immersive, more interactive, and more fun. When you play with a Living Filter, you change the way the picture looks. When you share your pictures online, you and your friends can play with Living Filters simply by clicking on your picture. When viewed on a mobile device, the filter responds either to the tap of your finger.

Living Filters changes a picture based on light field capture and user interactions such as focus point, object depth, center of perspective, and more. For example, the Crayon filter has the in-focus area in color and the out-of-focus area in black and white. As you refocus, the color and black and white areas move, smoothly transitioning between the in- and out-of-focus areas.

Living Filters works with all living pictures, including any that you have taken before December 4, when Living Filters becomes available as a free Lytro Desktop update. You can buy a Lytro camera now with overnight shipping for delivery before Thanksgiving.

If you’d like to know more about how Living Filters work as well as future possibilities, read our whitepaper about the science inside Light Field Living Filters.