Capture the Essence of Nostalgia With Vintage Lens Flare Effects
There’s something undeniably nostalgic about the warm glow of a lens flare – those golden streaks and soft light leaks that give vintage photos their dreamy, sun-soaked charm. Once seen as a happy accident in analog photography, lens flares are now a sought-after aesthetic that instantly adds mood and retro character to any image.
In the past, you’d need the perfect lighting conditions and camera settings to capture a lens flare. Now, you can easily add a vintage lens flare to your digital photography by using BeFunky’s Lens Flare effects! Not only is each effect designed to mimic real lighting conditions, but you can also customize them to get the perfect look for your photo – whether that’s adding warmth, coolness, or a subtle tint for a more seamless look.
Here's how to use the Lens Flare effects to create your own vintage-inspired photos!
What Is a Lens Flare and Why Should You Add One?
A lens flare happens when strong light (like the sun or a bright artificial source) enters the camera lens at a particular angle, causing light streaks, circles, or haze to appear across the image. In traditional photography, especially on older cameras, these flares weren’t always intentional – they were the result of light scattering inside the lens.
What was once seen as a flaw is now a favorite feature for professional and hobbyist photographers. Our DIY lens flare effects add a layer of warmth, nostalgia, and realism. They mimic the imperfections of analog photography, making your images feel more spontaneous and impactful. Whether you’re editing portraits, landscapes, travel photos, event photography, or more, adding a creative lens flare can completely shift the mood.
How to Add a Vintage Lens Flare to Your Photo
Vintage lens flare evokes the dreamy, imperfect charm of analog photography – light leaks, washed-out hues, and nostalgic glow. Whether you're going for a film-inspired edit or want to add some warmth and character to your image, BeFunky’s Lens Flare effects make it easy to achieve this aesthetic in just a few clicks. Here’s how to get started.
Step 1: Choose Your Lens Flare Effect
You’ll see a curated selection of lens flare presets that mimic different lighting environments. For a vintage-inspired edit, opt for styles that give off subtle light leaks, warm tones, or slight haze – these mimic the flares you'd see in old film photos or sun-drenched snapshots from the '70s and '80s. Click any preset to preview the effect on your image. Then, use the intensity slider to dial the look up or down.
Next, you’ll notice two draggable targets in your photo. The large target sets the origin of the light source, while the small target adjusts how the flare radiates across the image.
To enhance a vintage vibe, try placing the large target just off the canvas for a more diffused, natural glow. You can also center it over an existing light source – like the sun – to give the effect that beautiful, blown-out film look. Don’t be afraid to experiment with flare angles around your subject to add retro drama or dreamy softness.
Once your flare is placed, open the Settings menu (the most-left icon) to further refine the effect.
Step 2: Customize the Look for Vintage Realism
Here, you can toggle between Normal and Intense light leaks. And if the effect you’ve chosen includes a Tint option, click the color swatch icon to bring up the Color Picker. Adding a slight yellow, amber, or rose tint can evoke warm sunset flares or faded photo edges. For cooler vintage aesthetics (like old 35mm film), try soft blues or purples.
When you're happy with the overall vibe, click Apply to lock in your edits.
Step 3: Save and Share Your Retro Edit
With your vintage lens flare in place, it’s time to save your masterpiece. Click Save at the top of the canvas and choose your desired format and location – whether it’s your computer, Google Drive, or straight to social media.
The Finished Look: Vintage Charm With a Lens Flare
See how a lens flare instantly transformed this photo with vintage and nostalgic charm? With so many lens flare effects to choose from, not to mention endless customization options, there’s no end to the analog inspired looks you can create. It’s the easiest way to add a lens flare online!
More Ways to Get the Analog Photography Look
Want to take your edit even further? Here are three more ways to recreate vintage photo effects and bring out that film photography aesthetic:
Try Instant Effects
Our Instant effects were made to mimic the look of classic instant film, complete with soft highlights, slight blur, and unique tones. The result feels nostalgic and authentic, like a photo pulled from a decades-old album.
What makes Instant effects so effective is their ability to add that unmistakable analog softness without overdoing it. You can control the intensity of the effect to dial in just the right amount of retro mood. Pair one with a Lens Flare effect, and you’ve got an image that feels like it was taken with a vintage point-and-shoot – no roll of film or scanner required.
In this example, we’ve used the Instant 9 effect in combination with the Warm Sun Lens Flare.
Go for Cinematic Drama
Combine Lens Flare with a filter from the Cinematic effects category for a more dramatic, stylized approach. These effects add rich contrast and mood, mimicking stills from on-screen classics.
In this example, we’ve used the Cinematic effect Color Grading (using pink tones) and paired it with the Flash Sun Lens Flare effect (also using a pink color value). Color Grading lets you select different colors for the highlights, midtones, and shadows in your photo, allowing you to give it a completely unique filter, or even one that mimics the aesthetic of your favorite films (like those from Wes Anderson, for example).
Apply a Darkroom Aesthetic
The Darkroom category is inspired by traditional photo development processes and are perfect for recreating the distinct look of analog photography. There’s even a dedicated Light Leaks filter that is brilliant for creating realistic, vintage-inspired photos when combined with a Lens Flare effect. The Lens Flare effect in the Darkroom category also has tons of customization options, allowing you to control not just the intensity, but the phase, contrast and hue shift too. You can also shift the flare horizontally or vertically to get its position just-right.
We’ve used Light Leaks in the example below and toggled the Black & White feature on, which instantly transforms your image into a stunning black and white photograph. We’ve also combined it with the Simple Lens Flare effect.
Create Analog Lens Flares the Digital Way
You don’t need a vintage film camera or special lighting setups to capture the beauty of lens flares. With our very own Lens Flare effect editor, you can add sun-drenched light to your photo to evoke the mood of old film – all from your browser.
Check out our revolutionary Lens Flare effects for yourself!
