A good way to implement lens flare

#1

I want to create a len flare for a sunset/dusk scene, I am not too sure how to integrate it in a realistic way. Do I apply it directly on the landscape layer, or should I create an solid layer? Can I also adjust the colour of the lens flare and animate the beam to make it move?

Many thanks for helping :slight_smile:

#2

Lens flare occurs inside the camera’s lens, so it should therefore be at the very top of your image stack, but below anything meant to look like post-production processing, like color grading. I personally prefer to apply things like that to a solid, since it keeps things more flexible with independent transform controls.

The flare should only move if the light source or the camera moves, but if it’s necessary, you can animate its center point.

#3

Why would you even want that? The bigger the light source, the more even the distribution of light that hits the lens, the less likelihood for lens flares. I strongly recommend you study some realworld examples of this before making the big mistake of producing something that has “awfully cheesy” written all over it…

Mylenium

#4

My english is not perfect,

are you saying lens flare is a cheap trick?

or are you saying lens flare don’t occure under sunset photo?

My understanding is lens flare occurs when you point ur camera towards the sun.

#5

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lens_flare

a lens flare is a lens default, but it sells a lot when it’s used ingeniously in comp, not only on sun light.

#6

I would personally avoid the default lens flare that comes with AfterEffects unless that is what you are going for specifically. There are several lens flare plug-ins out there and there is nothing wrong with creating your own “lens” effect in Photoshop and using it in AfterEffects.

If you have no options and want the lens flare to look less produced or manufactured try using both the lens flare and cc Light Rays - pick whip the position and intensity controllers to the lens flare settings so that you will only have to animate one thing.

I personally favor Knoll Light Factory - very very easy to use and control.

#7

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