Create stunning looks with these premium 4K light leaks.
Light leaks have a unique way of changing the overall tone of your footage. Whether you’re looking for a quick way to make your footage look more ‘hipster’ or are simply wanting your footage to transition in an organic way, light leaks are a great solution.
In honor of our love for these light leaks, I’ve created 13 Free 4K Light Leaks ready for download. Here’s a quick demo:
The light leaks are 100% free, meaning you can use them in any project, for any purpose, however you’d like. Simply subscribe to the RocketStock newsletter below and we’ll instantly send you an email to download. Just for signing up we’ll send you an additional free video editing freebie every month!
Light leaks are also a great way to spice up motion graphic work. Instead of simply having a stagnant background, you can add a light leak to your scene to create rich movement.
Where other light leaks are emulated using shape layers, our light leaks were shot in-camera, so they have subtle, organic design changes that can’t be easily imitated.
In addition to having the traditional ‘vintage’ style light leaks, this pack also includes modern and futuristic light leaks that can be easily implemented into your projects.
Video Tutorial: Using RocketStock Light Leaks
Integrating these light leaks into your projects couldn’t be easier. If you’re more of a reader, you can skim instructions below as well.
Simply drag the light leaks over your desired footage in the video editing app of your choice and set the blending mode to Screen or Add.
Premiere Pro: With your footage selected in the timeline, navigate to your effect controls (Shift+5) and select the dropdown arrow next to Opacity. Hit the dropdown menu next to the word Blend Mode and select Screen.
After Effects: With your footage selected in your composition, simply click the dropdown menu under the word “Mode” (see image). If you can’t see the “Mode” menu, click the “Toggle Switches /Modes” button at the bottom of the composition. You can select Screen or Add to get the standard light leak effect. Note: Until background footage is placed under your light leak, you won’t see any change.
FCPX: With your footage selected in your timeline, click the inspector button to open up your video effects controls. Scroll all the way to the bottom. Under the section labeled “Compositing” you will see a “Blend Mode” menu. Simply change the blending mode to Screen.
Stylization Tips
Depending on your desired look, you can adjust Hue, Saturation, Blurriness, and Duration using effects built into your editing platform. One unique way in which we’ve used the light leaks is by using them as a luma mask for an adjustment layer. Take the following example:
The image above is simply one of the light leaks included in the free pack (Blue Orb Transition 2, to be specific) with a slight hue change and the blending mode set to Screen. It looks good, but we could take it one step further by adding an adjustment layer.
As you can see, if the adjustment layer uses a duplicate of the light leak as a luma mask, you can get some very interesting results if you add in various effects. In our example above, we used a quick gaussian blur to make it seem like the areas in which the light leaks hit were actually messing with the sharpness of the footage. This technique can make your light leaks seem more natural. For the example above, our composition in After Effects ended up looking like this:
