What are these flares??

[brynsank]

How does one achieve flares like in the attached frame grabs ('No Country for Old Men' and the 'To the Wonder' trailer). Some type of filter, or is it a certain type of lens? I've been shooting for a long time but have never seen any of my images yield this type of flare, which leads me to the assumption that there is a specific piece of glass that creates it. Anybody know?

 

[bgundu]

The flares in your samples will typically exhibit themselves when the lens is stopped down considerably.

 

[brynsank]

Interesting, I must do some testing with this. Out of interest, is there a correlation between the shape of the star (how many points) and, say, the number of iris leaves?

 

[David Jimerson]

Out of interest, is there a correlation between the shape of the star (how many points) and, say, the number of iris leaves?

Yes.

 

[bgundu]

Check out this article:

http://actionphotoschool.com/best-lens-shooting-into-the-sun/

Also, every lens has different qualities with flares when wide open too. Here is a test I did with Leica R 35mm F2.
https://vimeo.com/50015182

 

[brynsank]

Most interesting, thanks for the links.

 

[Paul F]

You can also buy star filters that will add a specific number of points to any point of light.

One example - http://www.adorama.com/TF67V.html

 

[arco1]

There are plug-ins to add flare in post. One of the more realisitic I have seen is the one from Video CoPilot. I don't remember it's name right now.


Jim

 

[stefancolson]

Just stop down and your flares will progressively turn into sun stars.

 

[N3D]

Video copilots Optical Flares

 

[Samuel H]

I learnt about this in this very nice article. The sample pics are really telling.

 

[David W. Jones]

Some of the nicest flares I have been able to achieve have been with my old Cooke 20-100mm zoom.