Thanks Rosemary. :) I didn't think those effects were possible without some external lighting program. The controls for gradients etc take so long to change on my pc that I think the whole experience of Apophysis will have to wait for a more powerful machine. Fractal Explorer doesn't give me this problem, but I have yet to see anything like the "lit" effects from Fractal Explorer. Regards, Helene

Thanks very much Rosemary, Fran, and kinggoran. All your advice was invaluable. Rosemary, a fractal I can give as an example is this week's featured fractal in the fractal community, Stargrave. I have been using Fractal Explorer and am trying Apophysis ( I know it will be fantastic when I get the hang of it and can manage to render something, but I think that will require a new computer to give me the memory to do it. I've done the tute there and LOVE that program.) Fran, Mount Olympus is EXACTLY what I mean :) thank you for that. One new and speedy PC desperately needed here. KingGoran, yes you understood what I meant alright, and I'll look into those filters for photoshop. Ultra Fractal is also on my shopping list and I believe it compliments Apophysis nicely. Thanks to you all for your very helpful advice. Helene A quote from somewhere that seems to suit this site..... "No box is big enough to contain the imagination"