Add a film halation glow to your photos
Halation is the warm red-orange glow around bright lights in some film photos. Add it to your own photos and control exactly where it appears.
How to add halation to a photo
- Click Add halation to a photo and choose a photo with bright lights or highlights.
- On the Adjust tab, under Halation and diffusion, raise Halation.
- Use Radius for the size of the glow and Threshold for which highlights glow.
- Use the Halation color pad to choose the glow's hue and intensity, then save.
What is halation?
In film, bright light can pass through the emulsion, reflect off the back of the film base and expose the film again, mostly in the red-sensitive layer. That creates a soft red-orange halo around bright edges. Most films have an anti-halation layer to prevent it. CineStill 800T, a motion picture film with that layer removed, made the glow famous.
The controls
- Halation: how strong the glow is.
- Radius: how far the glow spreads.
- Threshold: how bright something must be to glow. Lower it to make more of the photo glow.
- Halation color: a pad. Across sets the glow's hue, up makes it more vivid and down makes it whiter.
- Diffusion: a separate soft bloom over the whole image, like a diffusion filter on the lens.
Best photos for halation
Halation needs bright highlights against darker surroundings: street lamps, neon, headlights, sunsets, backlit hair and window light. For the complete look, try CS800T, which combines halation with a cool night-film color.
Questions
Can I add halation to video?
Halation isn't part of a LUT, because it depends on neighboring pixels. You can use the color of your look as a LUT and add glow in your video editor.
Why don't I see much glow?
Lower Threshold so more highlights qualify, and raise Radius. Photos without bright highlights don't show much halation.
Is it free?
Yes, with no account and no watermark.
Does it work on phones?
Yes, in any modern mobile browser.
Try it now
It opens in your browser in a second. No sign-up, nothing to install.