Lens flare

[Mangelwurzel]

Cool effect or a defect that should be avoided if possible?

I spend alot of time shooting at sunset and find myself shooting into the sun often. I usually try to avoid lens flare as much as possible and have even sat for hours editing it out of an image.
Despite this in some photos i actually think it looks quite nice.
Shots with lens flare in that i've seen on flickr sometimes have comments like "cool flare" followed by a comment a couple posts down with "nice photo, unfortunately you caught some flare".
I just watched a video by Zack Arias where he was shooting a model into the sun to purposely get some flare, so i guess if the top pros like it, it can't be that bad.

It's obviously down to personal taste :shrug:

Do you like it or avoid it?

 

[Uneducated_Rick]

Depends upon the situation - sometimes it adds whereas othertimes it detracts.

As a 'rule' I am generally against it

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

In most situations it is detrimental.
It's effect is some what unpredictable so "Artistic" is more a matter of luck than judgment.

Use a good lens hood and shade the lens with a hand or other object to cast a small shadow on the lens when working close but not directly into the sun. In the old days with 5x4 I used a dark slide for this.
if you are rimming a person with the light directly behind a decent lens should not produce flair if it is clean.

Dirty lenses always increase flair.

 

[specialman]

....if you are rimming a person with the light directly behind a decent lens should not produce flair if it is clean....

Enough of your sexual exploits while yuo're pressing the shutter

 

[HoppyUK]

There are two kinds of flare.

One is sometimes called veiling glare which is an overall loss of contrast in the image, as a result of unwanted reflections bouncing around within the lens barrel and ending up as a general fog on the sensor. This is bad.

The other kind of flare, and the one I think you're talking about, is when you get bright coloured spots on the image. Maybe this can be used for creative effect, and even the very best lenses will do this when provoked, but generally it's a bad thing as it doesn't look nice and you can't control it.

It's quite possible to introduce flare with a star filter or something, or just a UV with a bit of nose grease smeared on it, but it's not a technique I've tried much, except by accident