Effective talk: Creating better Lens Flares
Year of Talk: 2024
Video Link: Visual Effects Summit: Lessons in Lens Flares
Interactions between light and the lens
A modern camera lens will normally have various layers of lenses stacked next to each other.
When making a virtual lens flare it is important to consider how said physical lenses might affect how light gets affected.
Try to understand how different lenses can change and reference images to better understand.
Introduction to spherical and anamorphic lenses
Both options are the most common when in film productions.
Each produces different Image Artifacts, Bokeh (Blur occurring either in the foreground or background), Aspect Ratios, and Flares
Spherical vs Anamorphic Lens
Spherical Lens
Will create a number of rays depending on the amount of diaphragm blades in the front of the lens. Usually seen as the rotating plastic near the front of the lens.
Bokeh will appear more circular or polygonal.
By default, spherical lenses return 16X9 aspect ratios.
Anamorphic Lens
Horizontal streaks near light sources
The streaks/rays will appear asymmetrical compared to the ones produced by spherical lens
Bokeh and Ghost
Bokeh tends to be more vertically stretched.
Ghosts can be vertically OR Horizontally stretched.
By default, it creates a 2.39:1 Aspect ratio. Converted to 21:9 for digital versions.
Normally is shot as squares and is changed in the editing software. Creating the typical black boxes on the screen
Primary elements
Radial Rays/Horizontal Streak
Lines that appear from light sources. Can change how they look depending on the type of lens
Glare
Normally reduces contrast from images around the light source
Ghosts
Bokeh lines normally appear from the light source to the center of the screen.
Halos/Chrome bands
Circular or elliptical elements that radiate from the light source.
Can appear even when the light source is slightly off-screen.
Manifest in different ways depending on the lens.
Lens Dirt
Accumulation of dirt, dust, and any extra small items on the lens.
Creates out-of-focus Bokeh shapes.
Wide Angle Flares vs Telphoto Flare
Wide Angle
Digital Cameras get better at zooming out.
More of the area can appear in the image at once.
Different types of flares tend to be of smaller size.
Telephoto
Digital Cameras get better at zooming in.
Images are compressed. Meaning less information is saved.
There are fewer flares but tend to be larger.
Glancing vs Direct Light Source
Glancing light sources create more subtle flares compared to direct light sources.
Outside edge light sources can create a unique flare.
Occlusion of light source
Can cause ghosts to occur in a more staggered manner
Other forms of flares can become more subtle and less noticeable.
DOF/Blur
Light sources out of focus will have flares blur.
In focus light sources appear cleaner.
Anamorphic flares get squashed and stretched more often.
Chromatic Aberration
It occurs when lenses are not correctly focused on the same point. It can cause colors to appear weird.
Color can fring near the edges of images, like having rainbow colors.
Depending on how the lenses have been misaligned can cause the chromatic aberrations to appear differently.
Light Source Color vs Len's Elements Coating
The colors that are caused by light can cause different types of flares.
Can have anti-reflective coating can appear for some flares
If interested in learning how to make Custom lens flares in After Effects then check the video at minute 17:13. I will also be moving the blogs to be released on Sundays as they take a few hours to properly do and I dont have the time to do so on Thursdays with my current part time Job.
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