Relight Layer in Photoshop: The Complete Guide
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The Relight layer in Photoshop lets you add up to three movable lights to a photo after it was taken.
New in Photoshop Beta 27.12 It is a generative AI feature, so Photoshop rebuilds the lighting around each light you place, instead of painting a glow on top.
You drag a light icon over the image, set its color, distance, intensity, and softness, and click Done. The result lands on its own layer, and your original pixels stay untouched.
This guide is for beginners. If you can drag a slider, you can relight a portrait, a room, or a full composite by the end of it.
You need Photoshop (Beta) 27.12.0 or later. Relight is not in the regular release of Photoshop yet, and Adobe announced it on September 28, 2026.
The post also covers what the video could not. That means bit depth, color modes, Content Credentials, and what happens to your credits when a render fails.
It also answers the questions people are asking in the comments and on Adobe’s forums.
Key Takeaways
- Relight is non-destructive. It hides your original layer and renders the light onto a new Relight Layer above it.
- Every slider belongs to one light except Original lighting. That one is global, and it acts like a dimmer on the light already in your photo.
- The preview is free. Credits are charged only when you click Done, 30 per render, including re-edits.
- Relight only reads the layer you have selected. On a layered composite, stamp everything to one layer first.
- The final render matches your pixel dimensions, but fine detail is regenerated. Mask the Relight Layer where faces and texture matter.
- It works in 16-bit and 32-bit documents and in Lab, CMYK, and Grayscale. It will not work in modes that cannot hold layers.
Table of contents
- What You Will Learn
- Requirements
- Keyboard Shortcuts
- How the Relight Layer in Photoshop Works
- Step 1: Create a Relight Layer
- Step 2: Learn the Relight Layer Controls
- Step 3: Original Lighting Is the Dimmer
- Step 4: Position the Light
- Step 5: Add Lights and Change Their Color
- Step 6: Render with Done
- Relight a Room in Photoshop
- Relight a Landscape (Worst Case)
- Relight a Composite in Photoshop
- Mask the Relight Layer in a Composite
- Relight Layer Limitations: Bit Depth and Color Modes
- Which Layers Work with Relight
- Resolution: What Full Resolution Means
- What Relight Costs in Credits
- Content Credentials, Actions, and Scripting
- Troubleshooting Relight
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Relight a Photo After the Shot
- Related Links
What You Will Learn
- How to create a Relight layer from the Layers panel or the Layer menu
- What each light control does, including the one global slider most people miss
- How to place a light in front of, above, or behind your subject for a rim light
- How to relight a room, and why a window stays lit when everything else goes dark
- How to relight a layered composite with one shortcut and clean it up with a mask
- What Relight costs, what it cannot do yet, and how to read its resolution claim
Requirements
Before you start
- Photoshop (Beta) 27.12.0 or later, installed from the Creative Cloud desktop app
- An internet connection, because the lighting is generated in the cloud
- Generative credits on your Adobe plan. Each render costs 30.
- Any photo. A portrait shot in flat light shows the effect best.
Practice Files
Download the portrait and the room images used in this tutorial and follow along step by step.
Keyboard Shortcuts
| Action | Windows | macOS |
|---|---|---|
| Stamp all visible layers to a new layer | Ctrl Alt Shift E | Command Option Shift E |
| Undo a light change | Ctrl Z | Command Z |
| Cancel the Relight layer without rendering | Esc | Esc |
| Add an inverted (black) layer mask | Alt click the Layer Mask icon | Option click the Layer Mask icon |
| Make the brush larger | ] | ] |
| View the image at 100% | Ctrl 1 | Command 1 |
If shortcuts are new to you, the Photoshop keyboard shortcuts cheat sheet covers the ones worth memorizing.
How the Relight Layer in Photoshop Works
Relight is a new kind of layer. When you create one, Photoshop reads the pixels of the layer you have selected, hides that layer, and adds a Relight Layer above it.
Inside that layer, you get up to three lights. Each light has its own position, depth, color, intensity, and softness.
Everything you do while adjusting is a low-resolution preview, and it is free. When you are happy, you click Done, Photoshop renders the final version at your document size, and 30 generative credits are charged.
The result is baked into the Relight Layer. That means you can mask it, lower its opacity, or change its blend mode like any other layer. It also means the layer does not update if you edit the original underneath it later.
Adobe describes what Relight does this way: it removes the lighting in the photo and recreates its own. If you turn off every light, you are left with what Adobe calls the remaining ambient, or original, light.
You will see exactly what that means in the room example below. The wording is from Adobe’s announcement.
Step 1: Create a Relight Layer
Open your photo and select the layer you want to relight. For a single image, that is the Background layer.
Go to Layer > New Relight layer. You can also open the Layers panel flyout menu, the four lines in the top right corner of the panel, and choose New Relight layer there.
Photoshop hides your original layer and creates the Relight Layer above it. A small Relight badge appears on the bottom right of the layer thumbnail. That badge tells you the layer still holds live lights you can edit.
A white light icon appears in the middle of the image. The image goes into a low-resolution preview mode. It looks soft on purpose, so the preview updates fast while you work.
You can adjust the lights from two places: the Properties panel or the Contextual Task Bar. Both show the same controls.
The Contextual Task Bar is easier because it floats over the canvas. Drag it to one side, then click the white light icon to open the Light 1 controls.
Note: Clicking a light icon in the Properties panel does not change what the Contextual Task Bar shows. Each panel keeps its own selection. If you are working in the Contextual Task Bar, click the light icon there.
Tip: Changed your mind? Press Esc (Windows) or Esc (macOS) and click Discard. Canceling costs nothing.
Step 2: Learn the Relight Layer Controls
Every light carries the same set of controls. Here is what each one does.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Color | The color of this light. Pick a Kelvin preset from 1000K to 10000K or choose Custom color. |
| Left/Right | Moves the light sideways. The same as dragging the light icon left or right. |
| Low/High | Moves the light up or down. The same as dragging the icon up or down. |
| Close/Far | Depth. Close brings the light toward the camera, in front of your subject. Far pushes it behind your subject. |
| Intensity | How much light this light adds. At 0% it adds nothing. |
| Diffusion | Softness. Think of it as the size of the light source. Low is a bare bulb with hard shadows. High is a softbox that wraps around the subject. |
| Original lighting | How much of the light that was already in the photo stays. 100% keeps all of it. 0% removes it. This slider is global; see Step 3. |
Three icons sit at the top right of the controls. The eye icon turns off the selected light, like switching off a lamp in a room. The reset icon returns the selected light to its default settings. The trash icon deletes the light.
You need at least one light. Photoshop will not let you delete the last one.
Step 3: Original Lighting Is the Dimmer
This is the slider that decides whether your result looks like a real light or a filter, so start here.
Drag Original lighting from 100% to 0%. Now the only light in the scene is the one you created. Drop Intensity to 0% as well, and the portrait goes completely black. There is no light left.
Bring Intensity back up, and your light is the only thing lighting the subject. That makes every other control easy to see. Once you understand the sliders, bring Original lighting back up to blend your light with the real one.
Original lighting is the one global control. Change it under Light 2, and it changes under Light 1 too, because it belongs to the whole Relight Layer, not to any single light.
Warning: The reset icon also resets Original lighting to 100%. If your image suddenly loses the look you built, open the controls and check that slider first.
The reset icon returns a light to its defaults, not to your last move. For your last move, use Undo.
Step 4: Position the Light
Drag the light icon anywhere over the canvas. Watch the shadows on the shirt and the highlights on the face. They move with the light because Photoshop is relighting the whole scene.
As you drag, the Left/Right and Low/High sliders update to match. Use the sliders when you want a precise, repeatable position.
You can drag the light outside the image. A light placed past the canvas edge reads like a window off-frame. The one limit is the bottom edge. The light cannot go below it.
The Close/Far slider controls depth. Drag toward Close, and the light moves in front of the subject, toward the camera. Drag toward Far, and it moves behind the subject, creating a backlit look with rim light along the edge.
The light icon changes size with depth. Far makes it small. Close makes it large. That is a quick way to tell where a light sits.
Step 5: Add Lights and Change Their Color
Click Add Light in the Contextual Task Bar. A second light icon appears over the image, and a second circle appears in the task bar. Click that circle to open the controls for Light 2.
You can have up to three lights. When you reach three, the Add Light button grays out.
Open the Color dropdown. The default is 5500K, which is a neutral white. The presets are color temperatures in Kelvin.
| Preset | Looks like | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| 1000K to 2000K | Embers, candlelight, a sun on the horizon | Warm accent lights |
| 3200K | A tungsten or halogen lamp | Lamps and indoor warmth |
| 4300K | Early morning or late afternoon sun | A flattering warm key light |
| 5500K: Neutral | Midday sun or camera flash | The default. A clean key light |
| 6500K to 7500K | Overcast sky, open shade | Cool fill light |
| 9000K to 10000K | Deep shade, blue hour | Moonlight and cinematic night |
Here is the part that trips people up. In Relight, a higher Kelvin number means a bluer light.
That is the opposite of the Temperature slider in Camera Raw, where a higher number warms the whole photo. Camera Raw sets white balance. Relight sets the color of the light itself.
Choose Custom color to pick any color from the Color Picker. The light icon in the Contextual Task Bar takes on that color, which makes it easy to tell your lights apart.
Each light is independent. To edit Light 1 again, click its icon in the Contextual Task Bar first. Then change its sliders.
Step 6: Render with Done
When the preview looks right, click Done in the Contextual Task Bar. Photoshop renders the final version at your document size.
The final can look a little different from the preview, usually in brightness or color. Judge the result after it renders, not before.
Every click on Done costs 30 generative credits. Nothing before that click costs anything. You can check your balance by clicking the sparkle icon in the Contextual Task Bar, the Properties panel, or the Options Bar.
To change the lights later, select the Relight Layer and click Edit Lighting. Make your changes and click Done again. That second render costs another 30 credits, so settle your lights before you commit.
Toggle the Relight Layer’s visibility to compare the result with the original. The original layer is still there underneath, untouched.
Tip: Dial in everything on one render. Set every light, every color, and Original lighting before you click Done, and you spend 30 credits instead of 60 or 90.
Relight a Room in Photoshop
Interiors show how smart Relight is. Take a photo of a room with a window and create a Relight layer.
Drop Original lighting to 0% and Intensity to 0%. The room does not go black. The window still glows and still lights the area around it.
Now do the same thing with a version of the room that has no window.
This time the room goes dark, the same way the portrait did.
Original lighting controls the light that was falling on the scene. A visible light source, like a window, counts as its own light, so Photoshop keeps it on.
Adobe calls this the remaining ambient light. Relight recreates the scene’s lighting, and a visible source is part of what it recreates.
The flip side is that you cannot switch that window off. Relight can dim everything that was already lit, but it will not remove a light source it can see. If you want a dark room, you need a photo without a lit window.
Relight a Landscape (Worst Case)
Does Relight work on landscapes? Yes, but in my experience, it works best with people and interiors.
Create a Relight layer on a landscape and drop Original lighting to 0%. Move the light to the top left. The result looks like someone is lighting the scene with a flashlight. Raising Diffusion makes the light larger, but it doesn’t make it look like the sun.
To be fair, that is a worst-case test. Turning Original lighting all the way down removes the sun from the scene, and no single light can replace it.
For a landscape, leave Original lighting high. Add one warm light set to Far from an edge of the frame, and use it as a gentle addition to the sun that is already there, not a replacement.
Relight a Composite in Photoshop
Compositing is where Relight stops being a demo. The example in the video has four layers.
There is a background, a layer that removes the neon signs, a man looking at a neon sign on the left, and a layer that gives him a leather jacket.
The goal is to make him look like he is standing in the light of that neon sign.
Here is the catch. Relight only reads the layer you have selected. Create a Relight layer with the jacket layer active, and only the jacket gets relit.
The fix is one shortcut. Select the top layer and press CtrlAltShiftE (Windows) or CommandOptionShiftE (macOS). This stamps everything that is visible onto one new layer at the top of the stack. Your original layers stay exactly as they were.
Now create the Relight layer from that stamped layer. The effect applies to the whole composite.
Set Light 1 to a Custom color that matches the sign and drag the light icon over the sign. Lower Intensity, then push the light back so it hits one side of his face.
Add a second light above and behind him. Push it to Far, lower its Intensity, and give it a cool cyan color. That rim light separates him from the background.
Warning: The stamped layer is a snapshot. If you change the layers underneath it later, you need to stamp again and relight again, which costs another 30 credits. Finish your composite before you relight it.
Relight does not choose colors or match a background for you. If you want Photoshop to do the matching, the Harmonize tool does that in one click. Relight gives you the control; Harmonize gives you the speed.
Mask the Relight Layer in a Composite
After Done, you may find the light spilled onto the background. Hold Alt (Windows) or Option (macOS) and click the Layer Mask icon to add an inverted mask that hides the whole Relight Layer.
Select the Brush Tool, set your foreground color to white, and paint over the subject to reveal the light only where you want it. Tap ] (Windows) or ] (macOS) to make the brush larger.
Masking is half of compositing. If you want more control over edges and hair, channel masking picks up where a painted mask leaves off.
Relight Layer Limitations: Bit Depth and Color Modes
Relight works in 16-bit and 32-bit documents, but you get a warning first: Relight operates on 8-bit image data; fine color detail may be lost. Click Continue and your document keeps its bit depth.
Only the Relight Layer itself is 8-bit. In practice, that means very smooth gradients may show slight banding. In a 32-bit file, the Relight Layer clips highlights brighter than white, so HDR headroom doesn’t survive the trip.
Color modes are simpler than you might expect. Relight works in RGB, Lab, CMYK, and Grayscale. It does not work in Bitmap, Indexed Color, or Multichannel.
The pattern is layers. Those three modes cannot hold layers, and Relight needs a layer to put its result on. In Grayscale, the color presets only change brightness, since a gray image cannot show color.
Note: In CMYK, expect saturated light colors, like a 10000K blue, to shift or dull a little when the result converts back into CMYK’s smaller color range.
Which Layers Work with Relight
Relight works on pixel layers, Smart Objects, and the layers Photoshop’s other generative features create. The layer has to be unlocked.
Note: In Smart Objects, Relight is applied to a separate Relight layer and not directly to it.
It does not work on Type layers or Shape layers directly. Right-click one and choose Convert to Smart Object, and then it works. Just remember the result is baked. If you edit the text inside the Smart Object afterward, the Relight Layer does not update.
If your source layer has a layer mask, Relight uses the entire contents of that layer and applies a copy of the same mask to the Relight Layer. Active selections are ignored. If you want to limit the effect to one area, mask the Relight Layer afterward, the way the composite example does.
One light is the minimum, and three is the maximum. A light can sit anywhere on or off the canvas, as long as it stays above the bottom edge of the image.
One more thing you may notice: the light icon sits right on top of the area you are judging, and there is no way to hide it yet. Adobe has confirmed in the announcement comments that hiding it is on their to-do list.
Resolution: What Full Resolution Means
Adobe’s announcement says the final result renders at full input image resolution. That is true for the pixel dimensions. The detail inside those pixels is another matter.
The same announcement describes Done as the step that commits the lights and upscales. So the final image is generated at a smaller size and scaled up to your document, and the fine detail is rebuilt rather than preserved.
You can see it yourself. Set Original lighting to 100% and Intensity to 0%, which should give you back the original image, and click Done. Yes, this costs one render.
View the image at 100% by double-clicking the Zoom Tool, then toggle the Relight Layer on and off. Hair, skin texture, and fabric are softer in the Relight Layer than in the original.
Adobe has not published the exact render size. I expect this to improve in future releases. Until then, treat the Relight Layer like you would treat any generative result, and mask it so the original shows through wherever detail matters, such as eyes and hair.
If you have fought this before with Generative Fill, the low-resolution fix for Generative Fill explains the same tradeoff from the other direction.
What Relight Costs in Credits
Relight charges 30 generative credits every time you click Done. Re-edits through Edit Lighting cost another 30 each. The preview, Cancel, Esc, and masking the result afterward are all free.
If a render fails, you don’t lose the credits. Adobe’s generative credits FAQ says it deducts credits up front and usually refunds them within minutes when a generation fails.
As of this writing, Adobe’s list of generative features and their credit costs does not include Relight yet. The 30-credit figure comes from the beta announcement, so it may change when the feature reaches the general release.
For planning, Adobe’s plan table in the same FAQ shows what a month gives you. Creative Cloud Pro plans include 4,000 premium credits a month. The Photography plan with 1TB includes 1,000, and the 20GB Photography plan includes 100. Newer single-app plans include 25, which is less than one Relight render.
Tip: Use the free preview as a lighting sketch. You can move lights, change colors, and compare setups for as long as you like without spending anything. Pay only when you have the look.
Content Credentials, Actions, and Scripting
Content Credentials are attached to every Relight Layer. They record that generative AI was used and are cryptographically signed, so you can’t quietly edit them after the fact.
You can see what is recorded under Window > Content Credentials and click Preview.
When you export with File > Export > Export As, you decide what happens to them. Attach them to the file, publish them to Adobe’s Content Credentials cloud, or leave them off.
Anyone can check an exported image at contentcredentials.org/verify. If you deliver to clients who ask about AI, this is how they will know Relight was used. Decide on purpose rather than by default.
Relight also supports Actions and scripting, according to Adobe’s release notes. If you have a lighting setup you like, you can record it and replay it on another image. Each replay still clicks Done, so each one costs a render.
Troubleshooting Relight
These are the problems people are hitting in the first week of the beta, and what fixes them.
| Problem | What is happening | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| New Relight layer is missing from the Layer menu | You are on an older beta build | Sign out and back in to the Creative Cloud desktop app, then check for updates and install build 27.12.0 or later |
| Undo does nothing | Keyboard focus is inside a number field, so Ctrl Z or Command Z goes to the field | Click anywhere else in the panel, or press Enter, then undo again |
| The preview looks blurry | That is the low-resolution preview | Click Done. The final renders at your document size |
| Everything looks washed out after Reset | Reset also returned Original lighting to 100% | Open the controls and lower Original lighting again |
| Only part of my composite got relit | Relight reads one layer | Stamp visible layers to one layer first, then relight that layer |
| Render starts, then stops at the preview, with no result | Some accounts, including many school accounts, have generative features disabled by an admin | Ask your admin to enable generative AI features. Adobe says a clearer message is coming |
| An error appears when I click Done | The beta service is busy or down | Wait and try again. Failed renders are refunded within minutes |
Frequently Asked Questions
The preview is free. You can add lights, drag them around, and change colors without spending anything. Photoshop charges 30 generative credits only when you click Done, and another 30 each time you re-edit and click Done again.
No. Relight hides your original layer and renders the new lighting onto a separate Relight Layer above it. Toggle the Relight Layer off, and your original is exactly as it was.
Relight works in a low-resolution preview so it can update quickly as you drag. The full version renders when you click Done. Expect the final to differ slightly from the preview in brightness or color.
Undo works, but a number field can steal the keyboard focus. If you just typed a value into Intensity or another field, Ctrl Z on Windows or Command Z on macOS goes to that field. Click elsewhere in the panel and try again.
Yes, but Relight reads only the layer you have selected. Stamp all visible layers to a new layer with Ctrl Alt Shift E on Windows or Command Option Shift E on macOS. Then create the Relight layer from that stamped layer. Finish the composite first, because the stamped layer is a snapshot.
Yes. You get a warning that Relight operates on 8-bit image data, and you click Continue. Your document stays 16-bit. Only the Relight Layer itself is rendered at 8-bit, so very smooth gradients may show slight banding.
A visible light source, like a window, counts as a light of its own. Original lighting dims the light that was falling on the scene, but Relight recreates the scene’s lighting and keeps the sources it can see. The same room without a window goes dark.
Not yet. The light icon sits over the canvas while you work, and Adobe has said that hiding it is on their to-do list. For now, toggle the Relight Layer on and off after you click Done to compare the result.
Relight a Photo After the Shot
The Relight layer gives you something Photoshop never had: real lights you can place after the photo was taken, with shadows that move when the light does.
Learn the sliders on a portrait, remember that Original lighting is the dimmer, and settle every light before you click Done.
Watch the full tutorial above to see every step in real time, and if you have relit something interesting, comment on the video and tell me what worked.
Selections and Masking Mastery
Complete course includes 2.5 hours of step-by-step lessons, 6 structured modules, downloadable practice files, and custom Photoshop brushes. Everything you need to master selections and masks in one place.
Keep going
Once the light is placed, the next job is exposure and contrast on the render. Learn the Light adjustment layer in Photoshop next.
Related Links
Final Image
Drag the slider to see before and after
