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Studio lighting simulator for Mac · closed beta

Bring a reference. Leave with the setup.

Drop in any portrait. Strobelab reads the catchlights and shadows, names the pattern (Rembrandt, loop, butterfly) and rebuilds it in a physically based studio with the strobes and modifiers you actually own. The photo never leaves your Mac.

Free Starter tier at launch. Closed beta for 10–15 photographers.

  • macOS 26 · Apple silicon, best on M3+
  • Profoto, Godox, Broncolor, Aputure…
  • On-device recognition
Strobelab studio view of the rebuilt setup: a large octabox key light to camera left, a strip light behind the subject and a V-flat for fill.
Reference portrait: a woman with a red bob, lit softly from camera left against a dark background.
Drag to see the setup behind the shot Reference: test portrait from our benchmark set

BetaA real app, running today

Light the shoot before the shoot.

A physically based photo studio on your Mac. Real strobes, real modifiers, a real light meter, and a crew sheet your assistant can set up from.

Strobelab shoot mode: a model in a dark studio, an incident light meter reading f/8 at her face with the key light contributing 98 percent, and camera controls for ISO 100, 1/200 s, f/8 and 5500 K along the bottom.
  • Incident meter at the face: f/8, key 98%
  • Power on each light's own scale: Profoto 5.6
  • A real camera: α7R V, 85 mm, 1/200, ISO 100

Gear in the beta catalog

Beta catalog: Profoto, Godox, Broncolor, Aputure, Nanlite, amaran and Astera lights, plus 25 modifiers.

15 lights · 25 modifiers · 6 camera bodies in the beta catalog, plus anything you enter from a datasheet.

How it works

One reference in. A setup your crew can build out.

  1. 01 / REFERENCE

    Drop the shot you're chasing.

    A Pinterest frame, a client's mood board, your own best portrait. JPEG, PNG, HEIC or TIFF.

    • Works best with the face large and lightly retouched
    • Analysed locally with ImageIO and Vision
    Reference drop panel in Strobelab.
  2. 02 / ANALYSIS

    See how it was lit, in numbers.

    Strobelab names the pattern and measures it: key azimuth and height, key-to-fill ratio, modifier size from the catchlight shape.

    • Rembrandt, loop, butterfly, split, broad, short, clamshell, rim, high- and low-key
    • Near matches listed with their angle difference
    Reference analysis: Rembrandt at 63 percent, key 47 degrees left and 50 degrees up.
  3. 03 / YOUR KIT

    Rebuilt with your kit, not a catalog fantasy.

    Save your lights and modifiers as a kit. The setup is placed with what you own: power on each unit's own scale, HSS where it exists.

    • Power, modifier and position per light
    • Pilot-light and flash colour temperatures
    Light inspector: Profoto D2 1000 with an RFi Octa 5 foot, power 6.7 of 10.
  4. 04 / SHOOT

    Meter it. Shoot it. Compare it.

    Set ISO, shutter, aperture and white balance like you would on set. Meter at the face, take a frame and put it next to your reference.

    • Incident metering with per-light contribution
    • Six real camera bodies, sync speeds included
    Shoot mode with a captured frame thumbnail.
  5. 05 / CREW PDF

    Send the crew a sheet they can build from.

    One PDF with a top-down plan, every light's unit, modifier, power, height and distance, the metering target, a gear checklist and your shot list across variants.

    • ⇧⌘E from any scene
    • No watermark, on every plan

Physically based

Not a filter.
A studio.

Every bounce is path-traced on Apple silicon. Light falls off with distance the way it does on set, modifiers have their real sizes, and flash power uses each unit's own scale, so 6.7 in the app means 6.7 on your Profoto.

  • Hardware ray tracing on M3 and newer, denoised in real time
  • Inverse-square falloff, real flash duration and colour temperature
  • Flags, V-flats and backdrops that block and bounce light like the real ones
lights in the beta catalog
15
modifiers
25
camera bodies
6
lighting patterns
10

Inside the studio

Everything on a lighting diagram, made to behave.

Renderer

Path-traced in real time on Apple silicon

Hardware ray tracing on M3 and newer. Soft shadows, skin and fabric look the way your modifiers make them look.

Light meter

Incident, at the face

f/8ISO 100 · 1/200
Key98%
Rim left2%
Background0%

Reference match

Ten patterns, measured

The pattern name plus angles, ratio and modifier size.

RembrandtLoopButterflySplitBroadShortClamshellRimHigh-keyLow-key

My kit

Your bag, remembered

RFi Octa 5′ suggested
Godox P120L in your kit · used
AD600Pro × 2 in your kit

Camera

Bodies and lenses that matter

Sony α7R V, Canon EOS R5 II, Nikon Z8, Fujifilm GFX100 II, Hasselblad X2D 100C and Phase One IQ4, each with real sensor size and sync speed.

Variants

Try three setups, keep one

Full copies of a scene for A/B/C. Each one gets its own page on the crew sheet.

Coming after launch

iPad studio, iPhone on set

The full studio on iPad with Apple Pencil. iPhone becomes the on-set companion: checklist, plan, and placing lights where the plan says.

Privacy

Your reference never leaves your Mac.

  • Read on device. Face, catchlight and shadow analysis runs locally with ImageIO and Vision. No server sees your photo.
  • No uploads, no training. We don't receive your photos, and we never train on them.
  • You decide what's saved. Embedding the reference in your .strobelab file is a toggle, off when you need it off.

Plans the beta is free · prices announced at launch

Free to start. Pay when it earns its keep.

Starter

For trying it on your next real shoot.

€0forever

 

  • No account needed
  • 1 active project, up to 4 lights
  • Your own gear and calibrated profiles
  • Reference → setup
  • Crew sheet PDF, no watermark
  • 1080p renders

Most photographers

Creator

For photographers who plan every shoot.

Price at launch

★ Founder's discount for beta testers

  • Unlimited projects and variants
  • Full catalog, kits and substitution
  • Reference apply + render refinement
  • Shot lists across variants, 4K renders
  • 2 Macs + 2 iPads iPad later

Team

For studios with assistants and producers.

Price at launch

★ Founder's discount for beta testers

  • Everything in Creator
  • Shared kits and scene library
  • Roles and client approvals later
  • Private plan links with expiry later
Never paywalled Physics accuracy, your own gear, on-device recognition and export of your files — on every plan, even after you cancel. And we don't sell storage: plans differ by what you do, not by gigabytes.

Waitlist and closed beta

Get on the list. Get into the beta.

Everyone on the list hears first when Strobelab opens. We're also picking 10–15 portrait photographers for a hands-on closed beta. Four short questions help us choose.

You get
Early builds, a direct line to the developer, and your lights calibrated into the catalog first.
We ask
Two real shoots planned in Strobelab over 6 weeks and one 30-minute call.
You need
A Mac with Apple silicon on macOS 26. Best on M3 or newer.

Waitlist form

Which Mac do you edit on?
Lights you shoot with optional · pick any
Shoots per month optional

We'll send one email to confirm your address (double opt-in). After that, only beta invites and launch news. One-click unsubscribe. Privacy Policy

FAQ

Short answers.

Didn't find yours? Write to hello@strobelab.app

Which Mac do I need?

A Mac with Apple silicon on macOS 26 Tahoe. It's best on M3 or newer, where hardware ray tracing makes the path-traced studio feel live. M1 and M2 work too, with slower previews. Intel Macs aren't supported.

Does my reference photo get uploaded?

No. Face, catchlight and shadow analysis runs on your Mac. We never receive your photos and never train on them. The app only goes online to check for updates and, if you have an account, to sign in. Starter needs no account.

Is it generative AI?

No. Recognition measures your reference, and the studio is a physical simulation: inverse-square falloff, real modifier sizes, real flash power scales. The f/8 you meter is the f/8 you get, within the tolerances we'll publish after calibration.

What will it cost?

Starter is free forever, no account needed. We'll announce Creator and Team prices at launch, and everyone in the beta gets a founder's discount on them. The beta itself is free. Physics, your own gear, on-device recognition and export of your files are never paywalled, and no plan limits storage.

My lights aren't in the catalog.

Add them from the datasheet (watt-seconds or lux at 1 m, mount, colour temperature) and they behave like any other light. Beta photographers' gear is calibrated into the catalog first.

Strobes only, or continuous light too?

Both. Flash heads and LEDs such as the Aputure LS 600d Pro, Nanlite Forza 500B II, amaran F22c and Astera Titan Tube, with their real output and colour range.

iPad and iPhone?

After the Mac. iPad gets the full studio with Apple Pencil. iPhone becomes the on-set companion: checklist, plan, and placing lights where the plan says.

When does the beta start?

The closed beta is free and starts this winter. We'll pick 10–15 photographers from the list and ask for two planned shoots and one 30-minute call. We'll write to you either way.

Languages?

English and Russian at launch, with numbers and units following your Mac's region.