If you are working with a dark, more or less solid image field, the duplicate layer > apply flare > layer mask trick seems to be the easiest way to go. However, what happens if you want to use the flare on a photograph with a lot of different tonal values? There is another way to do this and I figured I should talk about that one as well, in case some of you want to try it out:
Create a new layer on top of your image, fill it with 50% gray, or lighter or darker. Apply the lens flare onto the middle of the gray layer. Then in the layer palette change the layer mode from normal to hard light, screen or exclusion - whichever works, this will depend upon the values of the underlying image - as will the value of the gray of the flare layer. Move around, see what happens around the edges (they may be visible), and if needed use curves or levels or brightness/contrast (or indeed, yet once again a good old layer mask) on the gray layer to blend everything together.
So, the whole thing involves a bit of experimenting, undo's and redo's, I'm afraid. But essentially that is how it works folks.
So, the whole thing involves a bit of experimenting, undo's and redo's, I'm afraid. But essentially that is how it works folks.
Open this photoshop file here >>> to get a clearer idea.
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