Sun & lens flare effect

The sun & lens flare is an image effect you can add to your posts to give them a more dynamic in a few seconds. It's a unique effect that's very popular among our users who added it to thousads of photos!

To add this effect to your photo, find the Add Lens Flare button in the post editor. Once you click the button, an icon with the sun symbol will show up in your post.

Drag the icon to the brightest part of the photo. Typically it's the sun. For night or indoor shots it might be a bright lamp or a window.

The sun and lens flare effect is composed of two parts: the glare effect and the flare. After adding the effect, you will see a UI that looks like this:

The glare intensity can be adjusted by the slider with the sun icons. It defines how much brighter the image becomes when the user looks directly at the light source. Just like in real life - if you look in the direction of the sun, the glare will be very intense and, on a bright day, it may even blind you! (don't try this please :)

The lens flare is an effect created by light scattered inside the lens. Sometimes unwanted by photographers, it's often used for artistic effect. J.J. Abrams actually turned it into a hallmark feature of his style!

If you are really curious about the physics behind lens flares, you can read all about it here.

The lens flare effect looks really cool in 360 photos too, so we encourage you to try it out. There are 5 different options you can choose from the lens flare drop-down, here's what they look like:

5-sided

This flare has a pentagonal shape and is white in color.

5-sided (opt 2)

Similar to the previous one, it's also a hexagon but with a slight red/orange tint.

8-sided

This lens flare is shaped like an octagon and has a very subtle white tint.

Round

This rounded flare has a red gradient background and a white stroke around it.

Round with rays

This flare is circular in shape and is made of short rays.

You can easily try them out on your post by selecting them from the Lens Flare drop down. If you don't want any flare, but would like to use the glare effect, simply select None. In our experience, different flares work better on different images, so it's always worth playing with the options to see what looks best!