Anamorphic Lens Flare
Anamorphic lens flare for photos and video: bright lights stretch into long, thin horizontal streaks, in blue, warm or white, like a widescreen cinema lens.
What is an anamorphic lens flare?
Anamorphic lenses squeeze a wide picture sideways so it fits on a narrower film frame or sensor, and the projector or editor stretches it back out. Their cylindrical glass also catches bright lights in a particular way: instead of a round glow or a row of rings, a light throws a long thin line across the frame, usually level and often blue.
That streak became a signature of big science fiction and action films, to the point where it's added in post to footage shot on ordinary lenses. This tool does that: every pixel bright enough stretches into a line both ways.
How to use it
Threshold decides which pixels streak. It's measured in linear light, so 0.6, the default, catches lamps, the sun and specular highlights and leaves a lit face alone. Length is how far a streak reaches each way, in pixels of a 1080p frame, from 20 up to 1000. Intensity sets how bright the streaks are and Tint their color.
The page opens on Long, a pale blue streak 800 pixels each way at Intensity 1.6. Anamorphic, the effect's own default, is shorter at 240. Warm turns the streak orange, Upright stands the streaks vertical at Angle 90, and Subtle keeps only the brightest spots. White drops the tint and the Threshold, for a cleaner, less stylized look.
Which flare should you use?
This is the streak alone. Lens Flare adds the other half of the look, the ghosts and rings that line up through the middle of the frame, and it's placed by hand rather than drawn from the picture. They stack well: a Lens Flare on the sun and this tool on every other light.
Night scenes are where it shines. Car headlights, street lamps and neon signs all streak at once, and the lines tie the frame together. On a daylight photo, raise Threshold toward 0.8, or a bright sky turns into a wall of streaks.