The pictures may not be full-blown, three-dimensional shots, but they are close

Nov 16, 2012 09:03 GMT  ·  By

Photos taken with the Lytro camera can already be refocused after the shot has been taken, thanks to the fact that the device captures the entire light field in front of it.

Granted, the photos get stored in a special, high-capacity format, and it takes a dedicated program to read and manipulate them.

Nevertheless, the product has been well received, enough for Lytro to go on enhancing and optimizing it.

The latest development is the addition of 3D perspective support. The shots taken with the tube-like camera won't exactly net one of those complete sceneries that can be explored with a mouse, but will still allow for changing the viewpoint in a scene.

The feature is called Perspective Shift. Quite self-explanatory, really.

“The new Perspective Shift from Lytro is fun and artistic! I’ve had a wonderful time running around with my Lytro camera to grab little scenes and bend them into this new way of seeing living photos,” said Lytro professional shooter, Trey Ratcliff.

“The idea that you can take any little scene and make it like interactive Matrix-bullet-time is really cool.”

In addition to Perspective Shift, Lytro has introduced nine new Living Filters that can change and evolve depending on how one interacts with a picture.

There is the Carnival filter, for instance, which twists and distorts a photo, Crayon adds color to monochrome shots, Glass adds a sheet of virtual glass to a scene.

Line Art, Mosaic and Film Noir are fairly self-explanatory. That leaves Blur+ (enhances blur in out-of-focus areas), Pop (gives extra detail and vibrancy to selected parts of a scene), and 8-Track (adds an “aged, vignetted look” to pictures).

The video embedded below is a short presentation of all these modes.

Lytro's light field camera has been up for sale in the US since late September (2012). International orders aren't being accepted yet though, except through a few authorized resellers.

Fortunately, all Lytro buyers and owners will enjoy the Perspective Shift and Living Filters features. Free updates will be made available on December 4 and everyone will be allowed to download them.