Nightlight (LaurentheeRipper) Mac OS

The 'Night Shift' feature on macOS is a convenient, built-in feature that can theoretically accomplish most of what third-party alternatives (like f.lux®) are capable of. However, as of now, there is no way to programmatically configure Night Shift (without entering the system preferences GUI), making its current usage more limited.

An Interview With An ArtRage Artist

  1. There are three frame options for this night light, each with its own lighting features. The black frame offers 2200K warm light, the brushed nickel version has eight color options, and the silver frame delivers 5000K bright white light. All frame options have a built-in light sensor and offer a stylish alternative to common night light styles.
  2. One of the most appreciable iOS features “Night Shift” is now available on Mac starting with macOS Sierra 10.12.4. Once enabled, it transfers the colors of the display to the warmer end of the color spectrum. As a result, your eyes won’t burn or strain.
  3. Your Mac will need macOS 10.12.4 or later to work with Night Shift. MacOS 10.12.4 is currently in developer beta and a public beta is likely around the corner; the software update will be available.
  4. MacOS’s Night Shift is a feature brought over from iOS starting with macOS High Sierra. It helps you reduce the amount of blue light you’re exposed to during the evening by shifting the display of your Mac to a more yellow tone.

Lauren May is a professional illustrator from England who creates cute fantasy illustrations and Impressionistic digital oil portraits across fantasy, cartoons and fandom.

ArtRage Editions:ArtRage 4.5

Nightlight (LaurentheeRipper) Mac OS

Platforms: Windows 7

Background: Traditional Art

Website:www.behance.net/lauren-may

Who are you? What do you want the internet to know about you?

I’m Lauren May, I’m a freelance Illustrator living in England and I work mostly within the children’s illustration field. I graduated in 2013 with a First Class BA Honors Degree in Communication Design and a Distinction in Illustration from Northbrook College.

What kind of artist are you? What kind of subjects do you draw? (How would you describe your style and/or theme?)

I’m an all-around kind of artist, I suppose. My drawings feature a lot of fantasy themed things like dragons and sword-wielding princes. I also have a keen interest in character design and video game art and hope to get into that industry some day. Other than that, I’m a bit erratic as an artist – I’m always experimenting and love exploring new ways of working. I also love expressing my appreciation of thing through the creation of fanart, but that is usually a more cartoony affair. It has only been about a year since I stepped out of my cheerful cartoons to experiment with a sort of Modern Impressionistic style of portraiture.

Do you come from a digital or traditional art background?

I grew up drawing and sculpting traditionally and didn’t have a computer until I was about fourteen. My college level workshops and assignments were almost entirely traditional and focused on fundamentals, but I worked on digital art in my spare time. When I began studying Illustration at degree level my work became half traditional, half digital.

Do you use other programs or traditional media?

Photoshop, Paint Tool SAI and a little bit of Illustrator. For traditional art I use pencil, watercolour, ink, gouache, and acrylic (very rarely). Sometimes I sculpt with plasticine and air dry clay.

How long have you been using ArtRage?

About a year for serious pieces.

How did you come across the program?

A free copy of ArtRage 2.5 came with my Wacom Volito 2 (my first tablet) over 10 years ago. I didn’t have the skills back then to properly utilise it, but it always stuck in my mind because it was unique.

Nightlight (LaurentheeRipper) Mac OS

What ArtRage works or projects are you most proud of?

My favourite one is my current project ‘The Quartermaster’ which is still a work in progress. I’ve had a lot of fun painting it so far and it feels like my most successful portrait so far. I’m very excited to see it through to completion.

The Quartermaster

How do you choose what to draw? Are you trying to tell a particular story/convey a certain meaning, or just basing it on what looks good? What response do you want from people?

Inspiration for portraits comes whenever I see a scene from a film or TV series that has lighting, colouring and composition that I like. I’m also interested in the form of a person, say, their face, hair, clothing etc. and try to capture that particular thing.

These paintings are just for fun and personal development but I do aim to convey an emotion or character trait within the artwork. For example: in the painting of Hannibal Lecter, his appearance is prim, opulent and pleasant – a ‘Person Suit’, as he puts it – so that he can be a functioning member of high society. His narcissist personality is his greatest and most revealing flaw, as such his Person Suit is bleeding out into the long, loud streaks of red paint in the background that symbolise his true murderous nature.

Why do you use ArtRage?

It is a surprisingly versatile software when you start utilising the sliders and presets on the tools. I absolutely adore the texture and real paint effect. It is as close to real painting as you can get and the best part is that it’s digital so you can undo mistakes.

Where does ArtRage fit into your workflow?

It has everything I need to complete a portrait from start to finish.

What are your favourite ArtRage features?

The oil brush.

Least used?

I’ve yet to find a use for the very fun stickers and glitter tools.

Do you have any tips for other artists who might want to do the same thing as you?

As with any medium, practice makes perfect. ArtRage is no exception. Once you have grasped how the tools behave and how they interact with what’s already on the canvas it becomes as intuitive as real painting.

Is ArtRage suited to professional artwork?

Nightlight (laurentheeripper) Mac Os Download

Most definitely!

Further Reading

Check out this tutorial – Lauren wrote about how she paints portraits using the oil brush and chooses colour values for her work.

See more of Lauren May’s work and commission her via her website, Tumblr and Instagram.

See more features from our amazing ArtRage artists!
Posted on the 21 August 2020 by Thiruvenkatam Chinnagounder @tipsclear

The researchers continuously publish studies on the potential harm of blue light filters. Staring at a screen all day and into the evening can affect your sleep and disrupt your body's natural rhythm. For these reasons, blue light filters are incredibly important.

Regardless of whether you spend your day on a Windows PC, Mac, or Chromebook, you should turn on the blue light filter to relieve your eyes. Desktop monitors and laptops usually have a built-in filter that you can access, and there are downloadable options in case this feature isn't available on your computer.

However, if you are looking for a blue light filter for your smartphone, there are many great apps available for download from the Google Play Store or the iOS App Store.

What's the problem with blue light?

Nightlight (laurentheeripper) Mac Os X

The reason blue light hurts is purely biological. Sleep is part of the circadian rhythm, which is the cycle of biological processes determined in part by the light and dark levels our bodies are exposed to.

In the most natural environment, where we are only exposed to sunlight, our retinas sense when the sun goes down and the environment becomes darker. This causes our hypothalamus to produce melatonin and other sleep hormones and to lower our body temperature.

However, when we use artificial light to lengthen our day, our bodies become confused and the various sleep signals are disrupted. Even worse is the blue light emitted by fluorescent and LED lights - like on our various device displays - which makes us more alert and produces even less melatonin.

This is why using a blue light filter is so important.

Windows 10

Microsoft added a function to limit the blue light to Windows 10 in the Creators Update published in April 2017. This feature is known as night light and it moves the Windows 10 display to show warmer colors that reduce the amount of blue light emitted. Turning the feature on is a simple process.

Step 1: Right click on Beginning Button and select the settings on the Main user Menu. Alternatively, you can press the button Windows + X. Keys and then click the settings.

Step 2: Choose system in the pop-up window.

Step 3: The display Category opens by default. Scroll right down and turn on Night light Frame.

Click to configure the night light function Night light settings Link is under the switch. Here are options to turn on the night light immediately, adjust the strength, and schedule when the night light will turn on and off.

To set the schedule, toggle the option Plan night light Option to a. You can then either switch the night light on yourself at sunset and switch it off at sunrise - automatically depending on your location - or you can set the time manually by clicking on Set hours and select when the function should be switched on and off.

When you turn the feature on for the first time, you will notice the color shift immediately. After a while, your eyes will adjust to the change and it should be less obvious. However, by reducing the amount of blue light, the night light feature will limit the effects of using your Windows 10 PC late at night. You may find it easier to fall asleep and your sleep may be deeper and more restful.

Mac OS

Apple was first introduced in iOS and brought Night Shift to Macs in macOS Sierra in March 2017. As with Windows 10, the feature is simple enough to turn on and configure the way you want.

Step 1: Click the Apple logo in the upper left corner and select System settings in the drop-down menu. Alternatively click on System settings Icon on the dock.

Step 2: Choose Show in the pop-up window.

Step 3: Press the Night shift Tab in the following pop-up window.

Here you can configure when Night Shift will run automatically, turn it on until the next sunrise, and set your preferred color temperature. For planning, you can have MacOS switched on and off at sunset and sunrise depending on your location, or you can set a custom schedule.

As with Windows 10's night light feature, Apple's night shift heats the colors of your display and reduces the amount of blue light emitted. Try it to see if it improves your sleeping habits and makes you healthier, more productive, and generally happier than Mac.

Chromebooks

Devices based on Google's Chrome OS have a built-in blue light filter called Night Light. The easiest way to activate this feature is to click System clock followed by the Night light Button in the popup menu. The screen is automatically washed with a dark amber shade.

To gain more control over the night light, do the following:

Step 1: click on System clock and choose the equipment Icon in the popup menu. This opens the the settings Window.

Step 2: Choose device listed on the left.

Step 3: Choose Show listed on the right.

Step 4: Click the switch to the right of Night light to activate this function.

Step 5: Move the slider between cooler and Warmer to adjust the blue light intensity.

Step 6: Next to Time scheduleClick the down arrow to select never, Sunrise to sunset, or Custom.

Step 7: If you choose Custom a timeline from 6 p.m. to 6 p.m. Select the duration by moving the start and stop times accordingly.

External advertisements

While you can change the blue light level on the software side, external monitors may include a blue light filter that you can manage using built-in On Screen Display (OCD) controls.

Nightlight (laurentheeripper) Mac Os Catalina

For example, press the OCD button on the 21.5-inch Acer SB220Q display and a control panel will appear on the screen separate from the PC desktop. As shown above, it includes options for adjusting brightness, sharpness, and blue light. You can manually switch between 50% and 80%. The higher the value, the more blue light is displayed.

Adjusting the blue light level on the OS side is definitely easier as physical buttons can be cumbersome. However, this method keeps blue light management consistent at all levels, regardless of whether the display is connected to a Windows PC, Mac or Chromebook.

Third party alternatives

Night Light (laurentheeripper) Mac Os Download

flow - For Windows, MacOS and Linux, f.lux is a filter tool that tracks the sun in your area to ensure that the temperature of the color monitor matches the local light level. It has the option to turn it off for full screen apps so that games and photo editing aren't unduly affected. It can even be integrated into smart lighting systems if you want to automatically adjust your room lighting at the same time.

Iris mini - Iris mini is a really light blue light filter application. It has no user interface, no buttons, and no 'confusing options'. All she can do is adjust the color of your monitor to optimally protect your eyes from glare and harmful blue light. You can control it manually if you want, but the automatic mode keeps up with the position of the sun in relation to your location and automatically adjusts the color of your screen accordingly. There are versions for Windows, Mac and Linux. Regardless of which platform you are using, you can take advantage of it.

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