How to add realistic flare ?

[aquariusbg011]

How to add realistic lensflare in Photoshop like this ?

[Steve13]

Looks like white feathered circles on a layer with the opacity turned down.

[julianmarsalis]

That's called bokeh a very nice effect...

[thehjj]

It's not lens flare.
You can get this effect in camera by shooting with your aperture wide open and having lights in the foreground and/or background.
If this effect is an afterthought, you can take out of focus photos of light sources. The best results will be at light with a black background. Drop them on your image in photoshop and play with the blending mode, I forget which one, but which ever will remove the black and keep the light. Adjust opacity to taste. If you don't have time to go out take the photos yourself, just do a google image search for 'out of focus light' and you'll have plenty of options to choose from.

[sehmuzb]

This is not lens flare, it is bokeh circles. You can do this with multiple ways:

1. Without PS (blasphemy!) : Get glitter, open up your aperture (> f2) , pour glitter in front of the model- not on the model! (you need someone to do it for you as you snap), a light source must be directed to the glitter falling down.

2. Get bokeh circles from another photo (lots of them out there, make sure to follow the licensing). Layer it up, apply proper blending (screen should work), adjust opacity to taste.

3. Create bokeh circles with PS brush on separate layer, there are a bunch of tutorials out there, blend it up.

Sehmuz

[plugsnpixels]

Knoll Light Factory. Also used by pros in video production.

[brodiebutler]

Damn. i hate it when you mock up a bunch of solutions and then as you read on they all get suggested before you get to type them in.

Definitely check out Knoll light factory, and i recommend having a crack with the brush tool It has so much power!

[julianmarsalis]

http://www.obsidiandawn.com/bokeh-ph...p-gimp-brushes

http://www.obsidiandawn.com/creating...oshop-tutorial