Lens Flares¶

Lens flares refer to effects generated by the scattering and reflection of light inside the lenses of a camera. These effects can vary greatly depending on the camera, type of lens, type of image source and surroundings and the position of the bright spots (highlights) in relation to the camera.

This group contains nodes to build and simulate lens flares. The results aren’t fully realistic but they can be fairly accurate (and they look cool).

Warning

Some of these nodes (specially in presets) eat Gigabytes for breakfast. Watch out for performance issues if you’re doing large formats. I’ve seen as much as ~8-10GB of usage when doing 2K images with the large rainbow preset.

Toolkit

These nodes are designed to work together to create the overall effect. Think of them as building bricks.

Note

You will usually want to have the Chromas in Lens, or lens reflexes nodes at the beginning, since they a lot on highlights.

Basic Glow¶

A simple glow around highlight areas.

Inputs	Description
Image	Original image
Size	Scale of the glow
Threshold	Minimum brightness for a pixel to be used for this effect
Strength	Intensity of the effect
Mask	Mask out areas of the effect

Outputs	Description
Image	The resulting image
Flare	The lens flare isolated on a black background

Lens Reflexes¶

Simulates highlights being reflected inside the lenses.

Inputs	Description
Image	Original image
Threshold	Minimum brightness for a pixel to be used for this effect
Rotation	Rotation of the reflexes
Blur	Blurring the reflexes (recommended for realism)
Strength	Intensity of the effect
Scale	Size of reflexes
Green Channel Influence	Intensity of Green channel reflexes
Blue Channel Influence	Intensity of Blue channel reflexes
Channel Separation	Distance between channels
Mask	Mask out areas of the effect

Outputs	Description
Image	The resulting image
Flare	The lens flare isolated on a black background

Rays¶

Simulates rays of light coming from highlights.

Inputs	Description
Image	Original image
Color	Colorization of rays (on top of image)
Strength	Intensity of the effect
Position X	Horizontal position of rays
Position Y	Vertical position of rays
Width	Width of rays (relative to image)
Height	Height of rays (relative to image)
Blur	Initial blur of rays
Mask	Mask out areas of the effect

Outputs	Description
Image	The resulting image
Flare	The lens flare isolated on a black background

Circle Rainbow¶

Simulates rainbows, also known as chroma hoops. They usually happen around a strong light when it’s visible in the image.

Inputs	Description
Image	Original image
Strength	Intensity of the effect
Position X	Horizontal position of rainbow circle
Position Y	Vertical position of rainbow circle
Width	Width of rainbow
Height	Height of rainbow
Blur	Final blurring
Mask	Mask out areas of the effect

Outputs	Description
Image	The resulting image
Flare	The lens flare isolated on a black background

Simple Circle¶

Simulates a simple glow ring.

Inputs	Description
Image	Original image
Thickness	Thickness of circle
Strength	Intensity of the effect
Position X	Horizontal position of circle
Position Y	Vertical position of circle
Width	Width of circle
Height	Height of circle
Blur	Final blurring
Mask	Mask out areas of the effect

Outputs	Description
Image	The resulting image
Flare	The lens flare isolated on a black background

Streaks¶

Simulates anamorphic light streaks (as generated by film cameras).

Inputs	Description
Image	Original image
Colorization	Apply a color to streaks
Strength	Intensity of the effect
Threshold	Minimum brightness for a pixel to be used for this effect
Color Influence	Intensity of colorization (0 uses image colors)
Rotation	Rotation of the streaks
Position X	Horizontal position of streaks
Position Y	Vertical position of streaks
Width	Width of the streaks
Height	Height of the streaks
Blur	Final blurring of the streaks
Mask	Mask out areas of the effect

Outputs	Description
Image	The resulting image
Flare	The lens flare isolated on a black background

Chromas in Lens¶

Simulates highlights being dispersed as they hit the lenses.

Inputs	Description
Image	Original image
Strength	Intensity of the effect
Threshold	Minimum brightness for a pixel to be used for this effect
Rotation	Rotation of chromas
Scale	Scaling of chromas (relative to image)
Lens Distortion	Amount of “roundness” to the chromas
Blur	Final blurring of chromas
Mask	Mask out areas of the effect

Outputs	Description
Image	The resulting image
Flare	The lens flare isolated on a black background

Presets

These nodes are built on the previous toolkit nodes. They are meant to be an example of how to use the toolkit nodes together. You can use these nodes as they are, but you will often find it more flexible to use the toolkit nodes directly in your compositions.

Simple¶

A simple lens flare including light rays, lens reflexes and chromas in lens.

Inputs	Description
Image	Original image
Threshold	Minimum brightness for a pixel to be used for this effect
Rays - Strength	Intensity of rays
Rays - Position X	Horizontal position of rays
Rays - Position Y	Vertical position of rays
Reflexes - Strength	Intensity of lens reflexes
Reflexes - Rotation	Rotation of lens reflexes
Chroma Reflexes - Strength	Intensity of chroma reflexes
Mask	Mask out areas of the effect

Outputs	Description
Image	The resulting image

Colored with Streaks¶

A more fantasy oriented lens flare. Includes chromas in lens, basic glow and streaks.

Inputs	Description
Image	Original image
Color	Colorization
Color Influence	Intensity of colorization (0 uses image colors)
Strength	Intensity of the effect
Threshold	Minimum brightness for a pixel to be used for this effect
Streaks - Position X	Horizontal position of streaks
Streaks - Position Y	Vertical position of streaks
Streaks - Length	Width of streaks
Chromas In Lens - Strength	Intensity of chroma reflexes
Glow - Strength	Intensity of base glow
Glow - Size	Scale of base glow
Mask	Mask out areas of the effect

Outputs	Description
Image	The resulting image

Circles & Streaks¶

A more complete lens flare. Looks best when there’s one strong light source, fully visible in the image. Includes Chromas in Lens, Circle Rainbow, Lens Reflexes and Streaks.

Inputs	Description
Image	Original image
Threshold	Minimum brightness for a pixel to be used for this effect
Chromas - Strength	Intensity of chroma reflexes
Rainbow - Strength	Intensity of rainbow circles
Reflexes - Strength	Intensity of lens reflexes
Streaks - Strength	Intensity of streaks
Streaks - Position X	Horizontal position of streaks
Streaks - Position Y	Vertical position of streaks
Streaks - Rotation	Rotation of streaks
Rainbow - Position X	Horizontal position of rainbow circle
Rainbow - Position Y	Vertical position of rainbow circle
Mask	Mask out areas of the effect

Outputs	Description
Image	The resulting image

Color Streaks¶

A more sci-fi oriented lens flare. Includes Chromas in Lens, Circle Simple and streaks.

Inputs	Description
Image	Original image
Center - Circle Color	Color for circle center
Colorization	Color to tint flare
Position	Position of streaks (in Y)
Rotation	Rotation of streaks and circle
Mask	Mask out areas of the effect

Outputs	Description
Image	The resulting image

Large Rainbow with Streaks¶

A more realistic lens flare. Looks best when there’s a strong light source visible in the image. Includes Chromas in Lens, Lens Reflexes, Rays, Circle Rainbow and Streaks.

Inputs	Description
Image	Original image
Threshold	Minimum brightness for a pixel to be used for this effect
Rainbow - Scale	Scale of rainbow circles
Rainbow - Strength	Intensity of rainbow circles
Rays - Color	Color of rays
Rays - Scale	Size of rays
Rays - Strength	Intensity of rainbow circles
Chromas - Strength	Intensity of chroma reflexes
Chromas - Scale	Size of chroma reflexes
Reflexes - Strength	Intensity of lens reflexes
Streaks - Strength	Intensity of streaks
Streaks - Position Y	Vertical position of streaks
Streaks - Color	Color of streaks
Streaks - Height	Height of streaks
Streaks - Rotation	Rotation of streaks
Mask	Mask out areas of the effect

Outputs	Description
Image	The resulting image