Halation

The red ring that CineStill puts round every light.

Add the red halo those films put round bright lights. Choose a preset, then adjust strength. Photos stay on your device.

JPEG, PNG, or anything your browser can open. Exports at full resolution; JPEG export keeps the source JPEG's EXIF and colour profile when present.

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About

I shoot CineStill 800T and 400D on film and a GFX 50R digitally, and wanted the one thing the camera cannot do: the red halo those stocks put round every light. Nothing I found did it the way the film does, so I measured my own scans and built this. It is free, it runs in your browser, and your photos never leave your device.

How it works

On remjet-less film, light that gets through the emulsion bounces off the base and re-exposes the red-sensitive layer from behind. The ring sits tight against the light and is gone within about 1% of the frame width. Measured on 36 CineStill scans, the red-to-green ratio by distance from a clipped light (1.0 means red and green are equal):

stock0.2%0.3%0.6%1.0%
400D1.401.491.101.06
800T1.261.281.161.07
500T (has remjet)1.051.101.141.06

The tool finds the clipped lights, spreads their energy at that radius, and adds red light, with a little green and never blue, which the film's yellow filter layer absorbs. Adding rather than blending is why it is vivid against the dark and gentle inside bright glow, like the film. Photos with no clipped light get no ring, which is also what the film does.