Use Photoshop to add Lens Flare to your photos

by Kevin Ahronson · July 16, 2021

How to use Photoshop to add Lens flare to your photos

There was a time when lens flare was frowned upon.

It was considered ‘bad form’ to have sunlight streaming through your camera lens, creating a strange, ethereal-looking glow, casting a soft diffusion over the scene.

Every step was taken to avoid flare and photographers would readily attach lens hoods to their lenses to help reduce its effect. It’s surprising how few photographers I see these days wearing their hoods. They have doubtless fallen out of fashion.

In this short video tutorial I will show you how to use Photoshop to add lens flare to your photos… and also, how to add the matted look, which is also very popular at the moment.

The addition of a Matte look

Just how you describe the Matte-look is beyond me.

It’s very popular, quite stylish, and used a lot by wedding photographers and those shooting families and kids. I’ve also seen it used in commercial photography in an attempt to sex-up boring subjects.

But what is it?

Well, matted photos look kinda diffused. There’s a softness to them. They reduce harsh contrasts in the shadows and highlights and can often convey a dreamy, romantic look.

In the photo below we can see the before and after.

There are a lot of people out there on the internet, asking you to part with money to acheive this look in both Lightroom and Photoshop.

Everywhere you look they are selling presets for Lightroom and Actions for Photoshop, all of which will enable you to very quickly add the Matte look to your own images.

Well, I’m about to save you money.

Watch this tutorial and see how they are doing it – for FREE!

Matting can be achieved in any editing software, not just those produced by Adobe. From Affinity to Capture One, if you have access to curves, you can Matte your own photos very easily.

The process in this video tutorial focusses on using Photoshop, but if you prefer to do it in Lightroom, just open up the Tone Curve panel to access your curves adjustment.