How I Add Realistic Lens Flares to My Smartphone Photos Using These Free Apps

Adding lens flares to your smartphone photos can be done on purpose or as a happy accident. If you miss the mark while taking the shot, there are many free apps that let you add realistic lens flare effects afterward.

1 Photoshop Express

Adobe’s Photoshop Express app provides a free way to add lens flare and light leaks to your smartphone photos. Although it’s free to download, and you can access the lens flare feature from the free version, you do need an Adobe account to use the app.

For more in-depth editing, you can upgrade to Premium from $4.99 per month. Adobe Photoshop Express is one of a handful of free Adobe apps and tools you don’t need to pay to access.

Open your photo in Photoshop Express and scroll to Overlays at the bottom. You can choose from a few different options, with Light Leaks, Bokeh, and Flares being the best choices to create realistic lens flares in your image. You might also find some luck in the Nature, Sky, Sparkles, or Celestial overlay categories.

The overlays can be edited in strength and blend modes; you can also choose how big or where they appear on your image by dragging the layer around.

Download: Photoshop Express for iOS | Android (Free, in-app purchases available)

2 Picsart

Picsart is a freemium photo editing app. The free version has ads, but you can upgrade for $13 or $15 per month to remove ads and access further tools, such as the background removal tool for smartphone editing.

Although you can achieve a lens flare effect using a mix of editing tools, Picsart has a specific Lens Flare tool, found if you scroll in the horizontal menu at the bottom. The lens flare options range from plain white orbs to firework-style flashes of color, and much in between.

Selecting a lens flare option applies it to your image while keeping it as separate elements and layers for total customization—you can place each orb of light or flare and change its size, opacity, and hue for the best results. There’s also a blend option so it fits realistically over your photo.

The Lens Flare tool and ability to fully customize and edit it makes Picsart one of the best smartphone editing apps.

Download: Picsart for iOS | Android (Free, in-app purchases available)

3 Hypic

This free photo editing app is from the creators of CapCut and TikTok, and it offers a bunch of innovative image editing tools. Most of them are available in the free plan, including being able to add realistic lens flare to your smartphone photos.

Open your photo and scroll to Effects > Light. Some of the other effects options also provide similar lens flare results, but the best options are within the Light category. You’ll find options such as window sunset shadows and the Orton effect style, but also some direct lens flare results, such as Rainbow or Halo.

While you can’t move the placement of the lens flare by dragging it anywhere, you can rotate it in the edit settings, so it suits the angle of the light source. The edit settings also let you choose the intensity and, using the filter slider, the hue of the flare.

Download: Hypic for iOS | Android (Free, in-app purchases available)

If you don’t want to take the time to edit false lens flare effects in to your photos, you can learn techniques to take lens flare photos with your smartphone so you get a true lens flare.

4 VVD

VVD is a free image editing app that offer premium upgrades with great lens flare and light leak options. There are free lens flare overlays, but you’ll have more options if you upgrade to Pro.

After uploading your image, tap the Overlays icon at the bottom and scroll to Light. While many of the Light overlay filters are Pro only, there are enough free options to choose from.

After applying your chosen flare, select it again to open the editing panel. From there, you can use the sliders for light intensity, hue, contrast, and more options. You can also drag and move the filter or flip it, so it fits in your image realistically.

Download: VVD for iOS (Free, in-app purchases available)

5 Lightfilm

Lightrilm is a free app. It’s simple and doesn’t offer many options to edit the applied lens flare or light leak in your image; however, the available options are really fun.

After uploading your image, select the arrow on the top right of the screen to access the Light Leaks. While slightly different from lens flare, light leaks are a common anomaly in film photography and using this app is a fun way to edit your digital photos to look like they’re film.

Choose any of the light leaks, some of which appear more similar to lens flares. There are no further editing tools, so you cannot change the placement or intensity of the flare. Select the download button at the top to save your image and share it.

Download: Lightfilm for iOS (Free)

6 Canva

Upload your image from Canva Mobile and select Use in New Design to open it as a project. There isn’t a native lens flare effect in Canva, but with a small workaround, you can easily apply one.

Select the Elements tab—or upload your own image—and search for light flare, lens flare, or light effect. Different search terms will yield different results; the same is true for choosing to search for Photos or Graphics in the Elements search function.

Find an element with a transparent background or a black background; these are the easiest to overlay since there aren’t specific blending tools in Canva. Once you find your favorite lens flare graphic or photo, don’t forget to favorite it to save it in your Canva account for later.

Apply your lens flare image over your photo and resize and reposition it to customize where the light flare should appear. Use the Transparency slider to bring the opacity down so it blends more naturally into your photo. You can apply filters or other edits if you wish to change the color, but there isn’t much more Canva offers for lens flare editing.

Download: Canva for iOS | Android (Free, in-app purchases available)

Some free apps provide really fun and realistic lens flare effects for your smartphone photos. Many of the apps have premium functions to allow more customization for the lens flare, but from the free versions of all the above apps, you can achieve great results.

My personal favorite is Picsart, but VVD is a close second. Using Canva is the most frustrating option, as there are fewer native tools to make realistic lens flares with the app’s free offerings.