How to add light leaks to a photo (Photoshop or free Photopea)

Place a leak plate over the photo, set it to Screen, push it to the edge of the frame and lower the opacity. One minute, no plugins.

A light leak is light that got into the camera where it should not. On film it fogs the edge of the frame with warm, uneven colour. You can fake it in a minute with a leak plate: a soft colour glow on a pure black background.

Step by step

1. Pick a plate from the light leaks collection. For a first try, use warm orange leak, left edge.
2. Open your photo in Photoshop, or for free at photopea.com.
3. Drag the leak JPG onto the photo. It lands as a new layer on top.
4. Set the layer blend mode to Screen. The black disappears and only the light stays.
5. Press Ctrl+T (Cmd+T on a Mac) to move, scale or rotate the leak. Push it partly off the frame so it comes in from the edge.
6. Lower the opacity until it looks like light, not paint. Somewhere between 50% and 90% usually works.

Make it look real

• Come from the edge. Real leaks start at the edge or corner of the frame. A glow in the middle of the image looks like a filter.
• Keep faces clean. Add a layer mask and paint black over faces with a soft brush, so the leak does not wash out skin.
• Match the light. A warm leak suits sunsets and golden hour. A cyan or blue leak suits night and winter scenes.
• Stack two. Two different leaks at low opacity look more natural than one at full strength.
• Add grain last. A grain plate on top ties the leak and the photo together.

Screen or Lighten?

Screen adds the light on top of your image and always brightens. Lighten only replaces pixels that are darker than the leak, so it looks softer and keeps highlights calmer. Try Screen first; switch to Lighten if the result looks washed out.