Optics

Halation

A halo around highlights: red travels furthest, so the colour follows.

Halation: a optics effect on the built-in sample photograph. Computed on your machine right now.
Open Halation in the studio

Controls

threshold
What counts as light. It moves the edge of the halo, not its strength — white glows fully at any threshold
radius
How far the red goes, and red goes furthest of the three
separation
How far behind the other two channels lag. At zero the halo is neutral, which is just a bloom; higher, it reddens
intensity
A number from 0 to 2, 0.7 by default.
quality
How many blur passes are stacked. One leaves a hard step at the edge of the halo, three a soft falloff
contrast
A number from -1 to 1, 0 by default.

Starting points

Nearby in Optics