creating sun stars with GIMP or so

[betazoid (Anna)]

Hi,

so I have this lens, the M.Zuiko 9-18, which cannot create proper sun stars. Apparently not even star cross / cross screen filters work with it properly, although, resolution and distortion-wise this is actually a good lens.
So I was wondering how it is possible to simulate this effect with the help of image editing. So far I came up with this: draw a star with the paths tool in GIMP, fill the star with pure white and blur the star. However, I am not satisfied with this solution. There results with the Topaz Star Plugin for Photoshop or Affinity are better, in my opinion, although, they not are as good as the optical filter or sun stars resulting form stopping down the lens. I also tried the motion blur method, not good.
Do you happen to know a better method?

Thanks in advance
b

[s7habo (Boris Hajdukovic)]

Hi @betazoid,

You can read this tread here:

*Adding* natural-looking flare

I got a question from someone asking “how do I make natural-looking flares in GIMP like in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p6javeTzvk , the GIMP tutorials I’ve found are just about geeky sci-fi flares”. I agree if they were showing https://docs.gimp.org/en/plug-in-flarefx.html. The stuff in the video looks quite simple, but the closest thing I can find to their “Plastic Wrap” is Supernova (using 0 spokes), where the edges are too sharp so it doesn’t look very good. Anyone know of a better way? …

I made a video on how to do this with gradient flare filters in GIMP (Filters - Light and Shadow - Gradient flare):

Flare with GIMP

In Selector tab of the filter you can choose distant sun preset and edit it according to your taste.

[betazoid (Anna)]

Thanks, that looks interesting, though not quite easy!

[racer-x]

Or, you can use one of these ready made Solar Flare brushes for Gimp…

Solar Flares.7z (260.1 KB)