Arcade Glow

What this action does

lit by neon screens in a late night arcade. You give the app a single photograph and it returns a new still image of you in that style. This one does not move: it is a restyle rather than an animation, and the picture is rebuilt in the style rather than having a filter laid over it. Nothing is photographed and nothing is recovered, so the result is a new picture that resembles the one you supplied.

What photo works best

Screen light comes from in front and below, which is unusual, so the original should not already be strongly lit. A neutral portrait, head and shoulders or waist up, front on, in soft even light, takes the neon cleanly. Dark clothing lets the colour show on skin rather than on fabric. A real interior behind you helps. Daylight photographs with strong sun on the face are the hardest to convert, because the existing highlights point the wrong way.

What to expect

One photograph goes in and a new still picture comes out, restyled rather than filtered: the model rebuilds the frame in the style instead of laying an effect over it. Run it twice if the first attempt gets a detail wrong, because the second version will not be identical.

If the result is not convincing, the fix is almost always the photograph rather than the settings. Reshoot it wider, get more light on the face, and move the arms clear of the body. The rest of what decides the result applies to every action here, and the limits apply to this one too.