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17 Creative Uses of Lens Flare (And How to Get The Effect Yourself)

17 Creative Uses of Lens Flare (And How to Get The Effect Yourself)

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By on in Cool Photos, Featured 6 Comments ]

For many years in photography, lens flare was actively avoided by photographers. Flare, which is basically light scattered within the lens due to unplanned reflection and lens impurities, was considered as something that ruined a photograph. Equipment like lens hoods were invented to help prevent it. But times change and so do fashions.

These days, not only to many photographers not mind some lens flare, they actively seek to get it to add some creativity to their shots. And, to be fair, quite often it looks pretty cool. Check out these great examples of creative lens flare and look at the resources at the end to find out how to shoot with or without lens flare in your own shots.


77/365 by meghannash, on Flickr


Angelena by Mike Monaghan – www.bluesunsetdesign.com, on Flickr


absolute by paul (dex), on Flickr


Metallica at Rock Werchter 2009 ♫♪ by crsan – christianholmer.com, on Flickr


Untitled by Erin Purcell, on Flickr


grass and flare by TeryKats, on Flickr


Jackie Martinez (#28440) by mark sebastian, on Flickr


Kissed By the Sun by MR photography., on Flickr


Lens Flare and Sand by Michael C. Rael, on Flickr


Autumn’s Light by MR photography., on Flickr


Alanna Kolette (#91896) by mark sebastian, on Flickr


Flare. by Matteo Paciotti | Photography, on Flickr


handlebars by eflon, on Flickr


Hip by Illusive Photography, on Flickr


Untitled by TheRoyceNg, on Flickr


Daisy DOF by Gareth Brooks, on Flickr


Solar Energy by JustinLowery.com, on Flickr

Lens Flare Links and Tutorials

6 Comments

  • Marco:

    Excellent examples of lens flare. I have been exploring lens flare on the iphone, and I would be interested in doing a guest post.

    By the way I follow your posts, especially the weekly ones on what’s interesting in photography. Thanks for sharing.

    February 27, 2012 at 5:26 pmReply

  • JP Henfrey:

    Lens flare looks great, but I agree – it’s best when it happens naturally. I’ve found iphone photos can accidentally end up with amazing lens flare effects (due to the crappy lens I guess!) Here’s an iphone one of mine http://www.site.mwpics.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/IMG_3728.jpg

    And there’s a really nice one in this gallery – in fact, when I look through my galleries I realise I seem to use it quite a lot.
    http://www.site.mwpics.com.au/galleries/rural-and-garden-photography/

    March 2, 2012 at 3:30 pmReply

  • Russ:

    Like tilting the camera and other goofy shenanigan’s, this is hopefully a passing fad. I’m surprised that it is still being employed.

    To quote C.J. Chilvers,

    “If you can’t say what you need to say in a photograph without
    heaping layers of software filters or resorting to the latest
    trends in post processing, you’re probably not saying much
    of anything.”

    —C.J. Chilvers

    March 2, 2012 at 8:17 pmReply

  • Avatar of tomdinningtomdinning:

    “When someone quotes a person most of the planet has never heard of and really doesn’t have any credibility anyway, just to get their point across, you’re probably not saying much either”
    Tom Dinning ( Light Stalking forum, 2012)

    March 3, 2012 at 5:36 pmReply

  • Orillia Photographer:

    There are so many creative ways to use sun flare – thanks for the post! I’m always looking for fun ways to incorporate into wedding photography.

    December 14, 2012 at 3:50 pmReply

  • Karalee:

    I’ve always liked lens flare. It adds drama. People hate on lens flare because they associate it with over processing. When done like the examples above, I think its gorgeous!

    December 14, 2012 at 9:49 pmReply

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