VISUAL INTEREST: LENS FLARES PART 2

The lens flare study continues! Examples used for this study will range from Louis Vuitton ads to anime.

REVEALING LENS FLARES

In a previous study on Revealing Volumes, I learned how rainbows only appear where there is moisture. This creates a “masking“ effect keeping the rainbow within the water/fog.

Lens flares can also have a similar masking effect: stronger visibility only over dark values. Revealing the lens flare over only certain parts of the image makes for more graphic visual interest. As shown in Jessie Ware’s “Tough Love“ and in The Last Jedi.

Moving example from Louis Vuitton’s Horizon Soft commercial:

SHIMMERING LENS FLARE

The second concept of this study is on active lens flares. Lens flares can “shimmer“ during an edge flare at a speed directly related to either the movement of the camera of the movement of the light. In the shot below from E.T., the edge flares shimmer as the camera moves:

However, shimmer lens flares can be abstracted and be used with less photo realism like: shimmering without movement of the camera or of the light within frame. The two examples below of Columbia logos show how shimmering lens flares, while not physically accurate, add visual interest and a layer of movement within mostly still frames:

I’ve found that this concept is also common in anime. The shimmering adds movement to what are mostly still frames to add life. Example from “Inuyasha”: