Having tips for stunning lens flares can transform your photography in two ways. Either you can learn how to avoid unwanted lens flares, or you’ll know how to achieve the perfect lens flare for value.
In many instances, lens flare helps to heighten the drama of a scene, adding an extra element of artistic flare that you cannot achieve elsewhere.
If you’re looking for the easiest ways to get dramatic lens flares, we have five tips for you to use in this guide.
What Is a Lens Flare?
A lens flare is one of many elements that can occur accidentally or deliberately. It happens when the camera lens is exposed to an extremely bright light source that touches the sensor and causes the light to scatter.
As a result, you’ll have a burst of bright light like the sun that might appear like a sunburst or a haze.
Lens flare can happen at any time of day. It also often changes the contrast of the photos’ colors.
Natural occurrences tend to make the picture look faded or washed out, which could be an aesthetic you’re aiming for. Alternatively, sunburst lens flares are sharper and typically resemble the shape of your camera’s aperture.
Photographers, these days, look to achieve lens flares by all means. Even more so those that deal in social photography – i.e., post content on social media. For this sect, the audience demands something artistic and imaginative. And a good way to achieve that is with lens flares. For perspective, many photographers now leverage lens flares to grow photography account on Instagram, engage fans on TikTok, and amplify Pinterest scheduler posts.
Before You Get Started: What’s Needed to Get a Lens Flare?
Many photographers believe there’s an added value to photos with a natural lens flare rather than one added in post-production or post-processing.
That said, you’ll need three primary things when trying to achieve flare effects. Here they are:
Light Source
First and foremost, getting a flare in photos relies primarily on the light source you’re working with at the moment.
Ideally, you’ll want the sun, as it’s the brightest and most affordable option. However, you can use artificial light to emulate golden lens flares.
Camera Lens
Regardless of the type of lens flare you’re going for, you’ll need a lens that’s likely to capture a beautiful sun flare more than others. For example, zoom lenses are more likely to capture an artistic lens flare because of their wider aperture.
Equipment Without a UV Filter
Avoid using modern lenses when capturing light flares, as they typically come with a special coating or UV filter. These filters are specifically designed to prevent lens flare images.
Instead, consider older equipment without the anti-reflective coatings.
5 Tips for Stunning Lens Flares
Let’s jump into the five professional tips you can use to achieve many types of lens flares for your photography.
These tips are guaranteed to be so easy to use that even first-time photographers can transform an entire scene with real lens flares.
Tip 1: Try to Use Natural Light
Natural light from the sun is sure to be your best friend when you’re trying to capture flare-related artistic effects. The strong light that comes from the rays of light from the sun is ideal for helping you produce a stunning image.
The best part is that the sun is entirely free to use, so you won’t have to worry about renting or borrowing lighting equipment.
The most important thing to note when using natural light to get the perfect image is the times of day you’re shooting. Aiming for the golden hour is your best bet for capturing a flare through your lens barrel.
At this point, there will be lots of light to shine through on your photographs.
Tip 2: Angles Are Key
Your shooting angle is an often overlooked part of getting into manual mode and trying to capture lens flares.
When going for flare shots, you need to adjust your positioning to get an optical flare that’s not too bright. Otherwise, the excessive brightness will wash out the subject of your photo, which could ruin the results.
A better alternative is to partially block the amount of light entering the camera lens. Doing so will help to reduce the contrast and washing out, using the lens flare as a background object rather than a distraction.
When blocking the light, an even better idea than shooting directly with the sun is to shoot indoors on a sunny day. This can allow you to work with light-blocking elements, such as thick curtains, to control the amount of light entering the image.
Even windows themselves can help reduce the sun’s bright exposure settings and the quality of light. With different angles, you can reduce overexposure while keeping the most important parts of your photos in the forefront.
Tip 3: Work With Your Aperture
If you were to glance at some beautiful images with gorgeous lens flare, you’d notice that not all lens flare transitions are the same.
Some photos of sun flares have large, blooming bright spots, while others have sharper, more precise embellishments. This occurs because of how the photographer works with their aperture.
When working with wider apertures, you’re more likely to have a blooming lens flare, a more dispersed burst of light. You’ll find it will feel more subtle and highlight your photograph. It adds a romantic aura to the overall vibe without washing out the entire image.
On the other hand, photographers can use a narrow aperture to get a much sharper optical flare. You’ll find that these sun flares have more of a sunburst effect and narrower rays shooting out from the light source.
A great tip to help you master working with your aperture is to remember the following:
Small aperture = high f-stop number (ex. f/22)
If you have a modern camera, you’ll find numerous settings that you can use to adjust your aperture.
Our top recommendation is to look for “Aperture Priority Mode.” This setting allows you to quickly switch between different apertures to see the difference in your golden lens flares.
Tip 4: Pick the Right Equipment
If there’s one massive tip you can use to achieve amazing lens flares, it’s to ensure your camera equipment is ready for the job. That means you’ll want to remove all types of light-blocking technology, UV filters, and your camera lens hood.
Lens hoods are specifically designed to block an actual lens flare. Thus, they defeat the purpose of heading out during golden hour to capture the perfect angles for sun flares.
We guarantee that as soon as you remove the hood, it will make a world of difference to your images. You might also find it easier to find an abundance of flares you can work with in post.
Another important aspect of picking the right camera equipment is to ensure you’re working with the perfect lens. As mentioned earlier, you’re likely to want to rely on older equipment without UV coating. If your camera lens isn’t built this way, you’ll do well to invest in one that is. Good news is lots of camera accessories coupons are out this season so you shouldn’t have to look too far.
We highly recommend a wide-angle lens with extremely clean glass at the end, as any grease on the lens will cause major blurring. It can be best to adjust the focal length to f/11 or f/16, making the beautiful flares massive in our images.
Tip 5: Shoot Into the Sun
If you find it far too challenging to get a beautiful sun flare photo using the above tips, this is a surefire way to get an artistic sun flare. The number one recommendation is to shoot directly into the sun, which is the simplest way to have a burst of light in your photos.
However, managing the light entering the lens can be incredibly challenging. Hence, you may find the flares slightly uncontrollable.
The most important aspect of shooting directly into the sun is being able to redirect the light. Doing so helps ensure it’s reflected a few times before hitting the sensor, so your image isn’t completely lost in the blurring brightness.
When you’re able to master controlling your bright source of light, you’ll find lens flares will work for you rather than against you.
Other Helpful Tips for Capturing Magical Light Flares
While the five tips above will definitely help you achieve stunning lens flares, let’s dive into a few extra tips to help you make the most of the light direction in your photos.
1. Don’t Forget About Using Your Camera’s Focus
Toying around with the focus on your camera can be just as effective as looking at your aperture settings when looking to capture lens flares. Even if you’re using budget lenses, focus can help you control the strength of the lens flare in your images.
Three user-friendly tips include:
- Take advantage of manual focus, as this allows you to control the lens flare more effectively than autofocus.
- Apply your focus lock on your subject when the sun is blocked, then you can slightly recompose the image to allow more light in.
- When shooting with lots of light, close your aperture, which will give you greater field depth.
2. Post-Production Is Key for All Photographers
Beginner photographers can often have a tough time adding a soft haze from a lens flare into their images.
Fortunately, with the advancements in post-production editing, many photo editing programs have numerous tools for you to use. These can help you get a deeper depth of field in your images without losing the brilliance of the direction of light.
A large part of the general population believes lens flare photography is 100% natural. Even if you naturally capture lens flare photography, you’re missing out on massive benefits if you skip out on post-processing.
During post-production, you can make robust photo enhancements that bring your art to the next level. You’ll be able to enhance the lens flare in your photos or help boost its prevalence.
The best part is that it looks natural, which doesn’t take away from your talent; it simply enhances the image before you.
Some editing programs will even allow you to add neutral density filters and add in lens flares that weren’t in the original image.
3. Play With Different Camera Filters
One of the easiest options for capturing lens flare in your images is to try to forego filters. However, there are many reasons you might want to shoot with one, especially if you want to protect the integrity of your equipment.
For example, UV filters are ideal for modern lenses since they protect the internal components when shooting directly into the sun.
A general rule of thumb is to keep three primary filters in mind when working with lens flare. The three main tools we highly recommend you consider when working with artistic effects and sun flares include:
Graduated Filters
Graduated filters typically start out dark at the top and light at the bottom. They’re primarily designed to prevent photos from looking washed out, which is typical for pictures with sun flares.
By applying these filters, you can keep your subjects as the sharpest focal points in the image.
UV Filters
UV filters can be hit or miss depending on the age and quality of your equipment.
When shooting with old lenses, UV filters can impact the lenses’ capability to allow light to hit the aperture. However, these filters are highly recommended to protect the sensitive components in modern cameras.
Polarizing Filters
The final option we highly recommend looking into when doing lens flare photography is polarizing filters. These can give you different visual effects.
They allow you to tailor the color saturation in your pictures, which is a massive concern with sun flares. Interestingly, flares tend to reduce color saturation and reflections, traditionally responsible for producing the bright sun flare-like imagery.
Regardless of the filter you choose for your images, you’ll want to make sure you play around with the different options. Eventually, you’ll find the perfect settings for any scene, allowing you to enhance the artistic elements in the photographs.
Achieving the Perfect Lens Flare
Mastering the art of achieving the perfect lens flare is something any photographer can do with the right tips, equipment, and the ideal time for shooting.
The sun’s power is not to be understated with photography in mind, allowing you to transform an ordinary picture into a stunning display.
Whether you apply lens flare overlays in post or capture it with natural lighting, the tips for stunning lens flares we shared in this guide are sure to help.
About Guest Author: Nirav Patel
Nirav is a growth marketing leader at HowSociable. He has a wide variety of interests and constantly working for the brands’ betterment. He enjoys writing and creating practical result-driven marketing strategies in his spare time.
