LuttieHalation. The soul of film stock.
The warm red-orange glow that bleeds from bright areas into surrounding midtones. It's the single most recognisable optical characteristic of film — and the hardest to fake with colour grading alone. Now in your browser.
Three controls. Full creative range.
Amount
How intense the halation glow is. Start at 10–20 for subtlety — halation is most convincing when you're not sure if it's there. Push to 60+ for stylised, expressive looks.
Radius
How far the glow bleeds from highlights into surrounding areas. Low radius keeps the glow tight to bright edges. High radius lets it spill into upper midtones, pulling the whole image warmer around highlight sources.
Hue
The colour of the halation. Default is warm red-orange (hue ~10), matching most film stocks. Shift toward 40 for golden amber. Shift toward 350 for a pinker Kodak-style halation.
When halation makes the biggest difference
Backlit subjects
Hair lights, rim lights, and subjects in front of windows — these are where halation creates the most convincing film feel. The warm glow wrapping the edge of a backlit face is instantly recognisable as film.
Street and night scenes
Practical lights (street lamps, neon signs, car headlights) bloom with halation in real film stock. Adding it to night footage transforms the look from clean digital to cinematic.
Golden hour footage
When the sun is low and highlights are warm, halation amplifies the natural warmth and extends it into surrounding areas — creating the glow that makes golden hour footage look expensive.
Skin in natural light
Bright patches of skin — foreheads, cheekbones, shoulders in sun — gain a subtle warm halo that makes subjects feel embedded in their environment rather than cut out against it.
Frequently asked
What is halation in film photography?
Halation is an optical phenomenon in film stock where light passes through the emulsion layer, reflects off the film base, and exposes the emulsion again from behind. This creates a soft, warm glow — typically red-orange — that bleeds outward from bright areas like windows, street lights, and skin in strong backlight. It's caused by the dye layer (anti-halation layer) in the film base not fully absorbing all reflected light.
Why does halation look warm/red-orange?
The anti-halation dye in most film stocks absorbs green and blue light more efficiently than red. The reflected light that creates halation is therefore biased toward red wavelengths, giving the characteristic warm red-orange colour. Different film stocks have different halation colours — some are more pink, others more orange — which is why the hue control in Luttie's halation effect matters.
What's the difference between halation and bloom?
Halation is specifically the warm coloured glow caused by light reflecting inside the film base — it's tinted, typically warm, and wraps around highlights into surrounding midtones. Bloom is a lens or diffusion effect — a bright, diffuse glow that emanates from highlights regardless of film stock. In practice: halation adds colour and warmth to bright edges, bloom adds bright diffuse softness. They're complementary effects.
Can I control the colour of the halation?
Yes — the Hue slider lets you shift the halation colour from the default warm red-orange (hue ~10) across the full 0–360 range. Most film stocks sit between 5 and 25. Moving toward 40–50 gives a more golden amber halation, which suits warmer scenes. Moving toward 350 gives a pinker halation, common in some Kodak stocks.
Does halation export in the LUT?
No. Halation is a spatial effect — it varies based on each pixel's brightness and its neighbours. LUTs are per-pixel colour transforms with no awareness of neighbouring pixels. The LUT exports your colour grade; halation should be added as a separate effect in your NLE.
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