A system and method for creating trompe-l'oeil skylights and windows where a light emitting image of scene is provided in a structure configured to emulate a skylight or window frame, including an embodiment of a system that modulates using multiple modalities, the light emitted by the light emitting image so as to improve realism experienced by users exposed to the light emitting image over an extended period of time, where the multiple modalities includes a circadian rhythm modality, and an ultradian modality, where the ultradian modality is provide by randomly calling on grayscale video files to module the signals from DMX decoders to LEDs by using captured data from actual sky observations over extended periods of time.