Magnifier enables you to zoom in on parts of your display. By default, it opens in full screen and will follow your mouse pointer, keyboard entry, text cursor, and narrator cursor.

Diffused lightphotography

I’m teaching photography basics and this is the best explanation hands down of the different kinds of lighting. I appreciate the work you do across your platforms.

Diffused lightfor plants

Diffused light is light that has an even concentration of light across the beam. It’s as if someone threw a light blanket on the object. Whatever is illuminated is illuminated evenly.

Tip: Make sure in Magnifier’s settings, you have Magnifier set to follow your keyboard and mouse, by checking the boxes for mouse cursor and keyboard focus.

Many people confused soft and diffused light simply because they don’t know the distinction. You can create soft light with a large light source. Even a hard light source like a 1×1 LED panel can create soft light if you bring it close enough.

Soft light leaves blurry-edged shadows. When they’re slightly soft you can still make out the shape of the object casting the shadow. A super soft light almost makes believe there’s no shadow, the best example being an overcast day.

Diffused lightceiling

You can change your magnifier view by pressing Ctrl + Alt + M – this will cycle through full screen mode, a floating transparent magnifying glass, or docked.

Diffused lightExamples

But to diffuse a soft light, you need to make sure the large source also provides an even spread of light across the beam. You can do that in two ways:

Specular light is light that is brighter at the center and then tapers off at the edges. The entire beam doesn’t have an even concentration of light. The light from a torchlight is the best example of this.

Hard light leaves hard-edged shadows – they are well defined with a clear border. The best example is the shadow from sunlight in a clear sky.

It’s for this reason some pros use a book light, which is a bounced source that is further diffused so the light is as diffused and even as possible, yet soft because of the large size of the frame.