Earlier this month the company I work for released a lens adapter called the ArtFx ColorFlare. This new adapter allows light to enter through the rear of an adapted lens, creating in-camera colored flare and light leak effects. My job was to demo the adapter and create product launch videos with the material I captured.
I took the ColorFlare to Kenosha, one of my favorite locations to shoot these days, and did a style/portrait shoot with my friend Colin. As always, Colin was a lot of fun to work with, and my friend Jeremy came along to capture behind the scenes footage of the shoot for the product video. I shot with my Sony A7S II and two adapted Nikon lenses: a Nikkor-H 28mm f/3.5 and Nikon 50mm f/1.4 G.
Here’s one of the product launch videos I created, featuring a behind the scenes look at our shoot.
And here are the photos I captured.
Shooting with the ColorFlare was a new kind of experience for me because I was making in-camera effect choices in the moment rather than in post. I found it to be a fun and useful tool, especially for creating that lo-fi light leak look you get with cheap old Super 8 or 35mm film cameras. For reference, here’s a picture I shot a couple years ago with a plastic 35mm film camera that had a light leak issue.
As you can see, the ColorFlare does a good job replicating this analog light leak look. I wouldn’t use it for every occasion, but for adding a little retro spice to my photos and videos or replicating the vintage home movie look in-camera the ColorFlare can’t be beat.