Lens Flare

[Chris Pritzlaff]

I did a shot recently where I wanted to get a bit of a lens flare as an effect. However, when I got the footage back, the flare from the light was horrible, creating huge streaks across the whole frame. What is the trick to getting that flare in the shot where it still looks good. Im sorry - i can't think of a good example right now, but Im sure you have an idea about what im talking about.

 

Thanks

 

Chris

[william koon]

I did a shot recently where I wanted to get a bit of a lens flare as an effect. However, when I got the footage back, the flare from the light was horrible, creating huge streaks across the whole frame. What is the trick to getting that flare in the shot where it still looks good. Im sorry - i can't think of a good example right now, but Im sure you have an idea about what im talking about.

 

Thanks

 

Chris

I reckon it is the placement of the camera angle and also the light placement if it is not the sun. Of scourse it is quite difficult to estimate the amount of the flare. As the lens is turn around or the light is moved, it will begin with a line of circles appearing in the lens, which means that the light has strike the lens and then to real flare. I would suggest you to stop the light adjustment as soon as the circles just about to disappear changing to more flare. Do try out in few stages, you will get the one you disire. Good luck Chris.

[Chris Pritzlaff]

The flare is not the typical series of circles - it is more like a giant streak of light that obscures about a 1/3 of the frame diagonal. Im not sure why this happened

[Brian L Schilling]

What format are you shooting with?

[Luke Prendergast]

The flare is not the typical series of circles - it is more like a giant streak of light that obscures about a 1/3 of the frame diagonal. Im not sure why this happened

 

Are you shooting video? Is it vertical? This is characteristic of an overloaded CCD.

[Chris Pritzlaff]

no - this was on super 16. The light (a 650w tungsten fresnel - was just out of the upper left corner of the frame. I was hoping to get the series of circles as a flare, but instead i got a flare that streaches out from the upper left corner diagonally to the lower right edge of the frame - it kinda spreads out, from there. I will post a picture soon, but I am wondering if there is any approach to getting those (in my opinion) really cool looking flares that are the series of circles that extend out from the source of the light across the frame.

[Adam Frisch FSF]

Normally zooms create those series of circles you're talking about, because of the multiple elemnts of glass in them - they're harder to get on primes. Also, newer lenses tend to flare less than old ones.

[Brian Drysdale]

Different makes and types of lenses have different lens flare characteristics.

 

Zoom lenses with their large number of elements will flare a lot more than prime lenses. The older Angenieux zoom lenses will flare a lot, the Zeiss zooms less so, although the T3 10-100 had a triangular flare effect. Anamorphic have horizontal flares. How much flare you get will also depend on the focal length setting on the zoom. For example. one Canon 2/3" video zoom has a big nasty flare at the long end of its range whenever a hot light is in shot.

 

Modern high quality prime lenses won't flare that much. If you want to shoot a hot light with miminal flare that's the way to go.

[Dan Salzmann]

Go to the place where you normally hire lenses and actually look at a few.

I definitely agree that the Angenieux zooms flare much more than more recent lenses.

This is due to the coatings and as well the actual formulation of the lens.

Make note of the exact aperure (Tstop) of the particular lens that gives you the desired flare.

[Max Jacoby]

no - this was on super 16. The light (a 650w tungsten fresnel - was just out of the upper left corner of the frame. I was hoping to get the series of circles as a flare, but instead i got a flare that streaches out from the upper left corner diagonally to the lower right edge of the frame

That is typical of flares where the light is just out of shot. You get this even with modern lenses (Primos, S4, Ultra Primes), except the Master primes of course.

 

If you want to get the circles, you need to have a big point source (like the Sun) right in the frame. Obviously zooms give you more flares because there are more glass elements.

[Chris Pritzlaff]

I was on a 16mm Arriflex Prime Lens - i guess this explains the odd flare. Sorry - still no picture yet.

[Kim Sargenius]

I was on a 16mm Arriflex Prime Lens - i guess this explains the odd flare. Sorry - still no picture yet.

 

 

Gate flare?

[Alex Wuijts]

Interesting subject. I've had the same thing with my Minolta stills camera. Light source was the sun, just outside of the frame.

[joe wigdahl]

I did a shot recently where I wanted to get a bit of a lens flare as an effect. However, when I got the footage back, the flare from the light was horrible, creating huge streaks across the whole frame. What is the trick to getting that flare in the shot where it still looks good. Im sorry - i can't think of a good example right now, but Im sure you have an idea about what im talking about.

 

Thanks

 

Chris

 

 

If you watch the Chris Cunningham "Director's Cut" there's a Bjork video called "All is Full of Love" (watch it on YouTube) where in the extras he describes the amazing lens flares used for the video. It sounds like it was entirely dependant on lens selection.

 

I'm a photographer, not a moving-picture type, and I know that in my experience older lenses, especially from before the mid-seventies, didn't have the glass coatings they do these days and lens flare was easy to achieve. If I know that need a flare, I'll rent an old lens with good glass and that seems to do the trick. If that's not an option because you're using a digital camera or something, I would suggest simply experimenting with the aperture of the lens. You'll get different types of solar flare shapes depending on where the sun is and how big the aperture is open to.