How can I create realistic light leak effects in post-processing?

Question

I want to add a low-fi "light leak" look to photos in post, similar to film cameras with damaged seals. I already know the common methods: overlaying scans of real leaks, using gradients or brushes, and blending them into the image. My problem is that these often require a lot of manual tweaking for each photo and still don’t always look convincing.

Are there any post-processing techniques or tools that can produce natural-looking light leaks more consistently, ideally with less per-image work?

user2127 · Accepted Answer

I have found a video tutorial which goes through an approach for creating this type of effect. On the same site is a set of interesting photos which demonstrate the variety of different light leak effects.

There are also other tutorials - this one gives a relatively simple gradient based approach that looks fairly quick and easy.

However, I'm not sure about how easy it would be to automate some of these workflows. I assume there are some plug-ins that would do this in a suitably random or controllable fashion but I've not found any yet!

How can I create realistic light leak effects in post-processing?

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