Looking at the shot we need to match, you can see we still have a few steps to complete to make the flares look identical. If, however, you prefer to use the sliders, you can do so by opening the Position panel in the settings menu.įrom the edits we’ve made so far, we can see that the two top panels are the control areas that create the foundation of the flare. To replicate the evening sun, I’m going to select the late afternoon preset, which presents us with a flare that mimics the setting golden sun. Initially, it’s not in the correct position, so with the OpenFX overlay activated, I can quickly reposition the starting point of the glare within the viewer. While there aren’t as many built-in presets available as there are in Optical Flares, the eight presets cover the basics you expect from the most common light sources - and of course, these are all highly customizable. The lens flare settings break down into six control areas: flare presets, position, global corrections, aperture, elements, and global blend. Now you need to jump over into the effects settings panel. This effect offers an abundance of customizable properties. Since the flare is an optical element produced by the lens, you have to make sure it looks real. In the color page, add a new node, and add the Resolve Flare effect found under Resolve Light FX to the node. We have a long shot of the musician sitting on his flight case, and it cuts to a close-up, but only the close-up features a lens flare, and the director wants both shots to have the same flare. This is the problem that needs addressing. However, you can’t move the flare around within the viewer, and for that reason, I recommend working with the flare in the color page.
You can work with the effect on the Edit Page. Therefore, we will look at how the plug-in works by fixing a problem I have with a shot, and we will explore the different areas of the plug-in in the process.
If I document a method on how to produce a flare from sunlight, it may look completely different on your footage. The flare will differ depending on the light source, lens type, aperture settings, and more. I find tutorials for effects that are very shot specific - such as a lens flare - are difficult to produce properly because everyone’s shot will be different. In the studio version of Resolve 14, however, there’s a flare plug-in that’s it’s incredibly powerful.
The majority of NLEs come with a flare plug-in, but as you can see with Premiere’s below, they typically aren’t that great. Abrams‘s reasoning for excessive lens flare in Star Trek - or if you need to match a flareless shot with another flared shot in your scene, you’re typically going to need a plug-in like Optical Flare. However, if you need to include a lens flare in your shot for creative reasons - see J.J. They are the icons of blockbusters, right? Nearly a decade later, I now spend as much time as possible keeping my shots flare-free. How times change. When VideoCopilot announced their Optical Flare plug-in in 2009 (released in 2010), my heart filled with joy knowing that every single shot from my DV camcorder would now feature a lens flare. Need a lens flare for your shot? Avoid the unimpressive plug-ins and customize your own flare in DaVinci Resolve.