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Chromatic Aberration

Chromatic Aberration
Filter

Simulates lens chromatic aberration by shifting RGB channels apart, with radial vignette-style falloff or uniform directional shift.

The Chromatic Aberration node applied to a source image: original (left) and result (right).
Side-by-side comparison: the original image on the left and the same image after the Chromatic Aberration node on the right.

Chromatic Aberration separates the red, green, and blue channels to recreate the color fringing real lenses produce.

  • Radial mode disperses the channels outward from a center point, so the center stays clean and fringing grows toward the edges, like a wide-angle lens.
  • Uniform mode shifts them by the same amount at a fixed angle across the whole frame.

In Uniform mode the Preview draws an arrow from the center while the node is selected: its direction sets Angle and its length sets Strength, with the red fringe lying along the arrow. The arrow is drawn 3.5 screen pixels long for each pixel of Strength at any zoom, so the short 0 to 50 px range is easy to set. Hold Shift to snap the angle to steps of 15 degrees (the length stays where you drag it), and double-click the tip to reset both rows. See Canvas handles.

Parameters

Section titled “Parameters”

Pins

ImageImage
InputRequired
ImageImage
Output

Effect

ModeChoice
Default: Radial
  • RadialChannel dispersion increases from center to edges, simulating real lens vignette-style chromatic aberration.
  • UniformConstant channel shift across the entire image at a fixed angle, for glitch or analog video looks.
MethodChoice
Default: Smear Range: Shift / Smear
  • Shift: sharp single-sample channel separation.
  • Smear: directional blur along the displacement.
StrengthNumber
Default: 5.0 Range: 0.0–50.0

Channel separation magnitude in pixels. Higher values produce more visible color fringing

AngleNumber
Default: 0 Range: 0–360

Direction of the uniform channel shift (Uniform mode only)

Falloff

Size (%)Number
Default: 80 Range: 0–200
Radial only

Size of the unaffected center region. Smaller = effect starts closer to center

Softness (%)Number
Default: 60 Range: 0–100
Radial only

Width of the falloff gradient. 0% = hard edge, 100% = smooth from center

Center XNumber
Default: 0.00 Range: -1.00–1.00
Radial only

Horizontal center offset. -1 = left edge, 0 = center, 1 = right edge

Center YNumber
Default: 0.00 Range: -1.00–1.00
Radial only

Vertical center offset. -1 = top edge, 0 = center, 1 = bottom edge

Usage Tips

Section titled “Usage Tips”
  • Radial at a low Strength (2 to 5 px) adds subtle lens character without looking like an error.
  • Uniform with a diagonal Angle gives a glitch or analog video look.
  • Method Smear (the default) blurs along the displacement for a soft lens look; Shift gives sharp, hard-edged separation.
  • Move Center X and Y in Radial mode to match off-axis aberration.
  • Combine with Film Grain and Vignette for a full analog lens look.
Section titled “Related Nodes”