Visual Interest: Lens Flares Part 1

I originally thought lens flares were style over function, but I learned that they could be quite useful after seeing them used in production. Besides adding flares for photo realism, it finally clicked for me that they can be integrated with an image to become a part of the color and composition design.

But first, what is a lens flare?

I recommend reading the third chapter of this white paper from Walch Andreas on “Lens Flare Prediction based on Measurements with Real-Time Visualization” for a clearer understanding. PDF

Lens flares can come from either light sources or from illuminated objects.

With closer inspection, we can actually see hundreds of flares on the right side of the model compounding to form a glow at the hot sources.

This effect is similarly recreated with multiple specular objects in a scene. Motorcycles flare in the sun in this shot from The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

The flare from the sun flashes the blacks with warm values to add warm color variation to complement the cool tones and even adds a little bit of texture (bottom right).

This takes us into color design.

Color Design

Lens flares can add some of my favorite color contrast: saturation. It’s important to use neutrals in art, but that also means there should be a saturated element for balance. The flare below adds a pop of color in Temple of Doom.

The same concept is at play in this shot from Looper.

The upper half of this image is mostly desaturated in this shot from the NBA dunk contest. Flares provides saturation contrast with both their spokes and their blue veiling glare. More on saturation contrast in the UNM Art Archive

Lens flares can also add color variety. This shot from The Lego Movie has well-balanced value variation, and it’s mostly monotone in hue (though the sunlit areas are yellow to keep hue balance). Rainbow lens flares are added to provide some color break up .

Flares can also contribute to complementary contrast. In this shot from Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, there is already purple/yellow contrast, but the flare provides value variety for the purple, and even a dash of blue.

Lens flares can add to basic temperature contrast (warm/cool). As shown in these 2 shots from Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Temple of Doom .

This flare alone has wide variety of blues from cool, neutral to warm – and even opacity variation:

Variety of flare can also breakup monotony. The lights along the building in the back ground are identical and increasingly flare as they get closer to the camera (due to less atmosphere). The far right flare that is sneaking in is an edge flare that takes on a unique shape and (and sometimes color) before its fully in frame. This creates both texture and color variety from the same light sources.

Always keep lens flares in mind when thinking about color. Even in a blurred image, we still read the flare as a part of the color scheme.

The same goes for composition.

Composition

Everything within the composition is a part of the composition, even lens flares. This can be used to a design’s advantage.

Lens flares can be used as sub framing to help emphasize the center of interest. A gestalt circle flare is farming both Leia and the star burst flare (that are already in a subframe made by the door and its shadow). Plus, the gestalt circle balances out the top left outer spoke flare.

La La Land used a similar form of subframing. There is dark vignetting around the image from the open aperture, but the bottom half also uses a “flare vignette” to create a brighter, semi-oval subframe to keep focus on Ryan.

Flares can act as compositional leading lines. The shot below has a leading line directing the eye to Poe, who is the focus of the shot. This composition would be slightly muddy without it.

In another shot from The Last Jedi, the lens flare ponts directly to the middle ship to direct the eye. Its ghosts (repetitive line of circle flares)  also adds a strong diagonal line to the composition.

A lens flare’s diagonal form can also follow shot’s function. The most dynamic line is a diagonal, so diagonal lines in a composition for a dynamically moving subject – a dunker – can make the shot more exciting.

So much of composition is about balance. But one of the most important things I learned since I started working at studios is how imperative it is to break up symmetry be it in color, arrangement and movement to add balance through variety. This shot from Despicable Me 2 uses a lens flare to add asymmetrical balance to the shot by flashing the right side of the frame and adding shadow variety.

That was my study of lens flares. I enjoyed sitting down to recap concepts I’ve learned from work to see how they can apply to lens flares for more thoughtful and pleasing shots. Flares are now something I’ll have to consider when studying the visual language of a film or show. While the recent Star Trek films might be the first to come to mind in terms of flares being inseparable from its style, “The West Wing” also has very specific flares from their lenses that are closely tied to its look: