Interactive Additive Diffraction Synthesis

Lens flare, comprising diffraction patterns of direct lights and ghosts of an aperture, is one of artistic artifacts in optical systems. The generation of far-field diffraction patterns has commonly used Fourier transform of the iris apertures. While such outcomes are physically faithful, more flexible and intuitive editing of diffraction patterns has not been explored so far. In this poster, we present a novel scheme of diffraction synthesis, which additively integrates diffraction elements. We decompose the apertures into curved edges and circular core so that they abstract non-symmetric streaks and circular core highlights, respectively. We then apply Fourier transform for each, rotate them, and finally composite them into a single output image. In this way, we can easily generate diffraction patterns similarly to that of the source aperture and more exaggerated ones, as well.