Creative Use Of Lens Flare

Creative Use Of Lens Flare

by William Lulow

A number of years ago, I was experimenting with different lighting techniques for fashion shots. I came upon a mylar, mirrored sheet (4×8) and got an idea for creating an interesting lighting. I wanted to see if I could come up with a creative use of lens flare and make it work in a fashion shot. I knew that the mylar would create various lighting patterns as well as soften up the light that was reflected. I tried placing the model in front of the mirrored panel and seeing what would happen to the light from my big, soft umbrella (which was placed directly behind the camera). Sometimes, I would position myself in front of the umbrella light itself. This is one result:

As you can see, the model was positioned in front of the mirrored surface and I could have her move to control the amount of the reflection. I noticed that when she was allowing some of the light to shine through, the mirror flared the light in an interesting way. I could control the amount of the flare by the model’s position.

Another technique was to load up a plain white background with light and let it spill over on to the model. I set up two flats with strobe heads behind them and made the light two f/stops brighter than the main light to assure that I would get some flare from them. In addition, I used a plain filter over the lens to which I applied some Vaseline. I tried to have the Vaseline just on the edges of the filter so that the center was fairly clear. This was the result:

Then, I began to experiment with using the same lighting setup but cross-processing the film (which today can be accomplished by the use of a filter in Photoshop). This was the result:

There is really no end to the kinds of effects you can come up with when you experiment with various tools at your disposal from backgrounds to filters. The key is to keep track of what you shoot. Experiments are great, but unless you can duplicate them, they are not of much use to you.  So, keep track of materials you use, exposures and light settings. Then you will have added to your arsenal of techniques and you will be able to use them again. Just one further note: coatings on digital lenses are really much better than they used to be for film. I have noted that whenever I have included a light source in a shot, it doesn’t flare like older, analog lenses. So, you might have to force it a bit to achieve the results I have here.