Cameras and screens
Live sources are layers like any other. Put a camera, a whole display or one app window on a slide, then size, mask and crop it. The same camera can appear on every slide, each framed its own way.
Permissions
macOS asks once for each kind of access:
- Camera, the first time a slide shows a camera. If you declined, the camera's inspector says so. Turn it on in .
- Screen Recording, for displays and windows. Until it's granted, the toolbar's Screen menu shows Allow Screen Recording… in place of the window list.
Cameras
Select a slide and click Camera in the toolbar.
Choose Default Camera (whatever macOS uses as its default camera), or a specific camera from the list. The camera is added full size.
Resize and place it on the canvas, or leave it full screen. makes a new slide with a camera already on it.
The list includes built-in and USB cameras, Continuity Camera (your iPhone used as a webcam) and Desk View. Cameras you plug in while ArcLight is open appear right away.
Camera settings
Select a camera layer and open the Camera tab in the Format inspector:
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Device | Switch the layer to another camera. A camera that isn't connected shows as Unavailable Camera until it's back. |
| Scale | Fill covers the layer and trims the edges. Fit shows the whole picture. |
| Mirror | Flips the picture left to right. |
| Color | Adjust… opens the Color window for this camera. See Color and effects. |
| Background | Keep, Blur or Remove (below). |
Blur or remove the background
Set Background to:
- Blur to keep you sharp and soften the room behind you. The Blur slider sets how much.
- Remove to cut you out, so you appear over the slide. No green screen needed.
The setting belongs to the layer, so one slide can blur the room while the next removes it, or blurs it by a different amount. ArcLight finds you in the picture once per camera, however many slides use it. On a busy Mac the cutout updates less often rather than falling behind the camera.
Displays
Click Screen in the toolbar.
Under Desktop, choose a display.
The display's inspector lets you switch to another display (or Main Display) and set Scale. Display captures show the pointer. ArcLight's own windows are left out of the capture, so the editor and presenter view never show up on your slide.
App windows
Click Screen in the toolbar.
Under Windows, pick an app, then one of its windows.
A window capture shows only that window, even when other windows cover it. ArcLight remembers it by app and window title, so it reconnects after you relaunch the app. If the window isn't open, the inspector shows its name with (not open); choose another window from the same menu.
Minimized windows can't be captured. Very small windows and ArcLight's own windows aren't listed.
Mask and crop
Cameras, displays and windows share the same framing tools as images and video. In the source tab (Camera, Screen or Window):
- Mask: Rectangle, Circle or Squircle. A circle mask on a small camera makes a classic picture-in-picture bubble.
- Crop: trim up to 45% from the top, bottom, left or right before the source is fitted. Use it to hide a menu bar, or to zoom into one part of a screen. Reset clears it.
In the Style tab, a rectangle mask gets a corner Radius, next to Opacity and effects. Effects belong to the layer, so each slide can treat the same camera differently. The color grade belongs to the camera, so it applies everywhere that camera appears.
One source, many slides
Each camera, display and window runs once, no matter how many slides, thumbnails or windows show it. A source starts when something first needs it and stops a few seconds after nothing does. Moving between slides that show the same camera never restarts it.
This also drives Magic Move: live sources pair across slides by what they show. Put the same camera full screen on one slide and small in a corner on the next, and Magic Move glides it from one to the other.