Tiffen 46STR42 46mm 4-Point Star Filter

The Tiffen 46mm 4-Point Star Filter is a specialty effects filter designed to turn small, intense light sources into crisp four-pointed stars directly in-camera. Whether you are shooting evening street scenes, candlelit portraits, or sunlight glinting off water, the filter transforms ordinary specular highlights into eye-catching radiating points. Because the effect is optical rather than software-based, it interacts naturally with depth of field and lens characteristics, producing results that can be difficult to replicate convincingly in post-production.

A key practical feature is the rotating mount: once threaded onto a 46mm lens, the outer ring turns independently, letting you orient the star points at any angle—vertical, diagonal, or anywhere in between—without removing or repositioning the filter. This makes on-the-fly creative adjustments fast and intuitive. Built to Tiffen's long-established optical standards, the filter uses multi-etched glass that maintains image sharpness across the frame while introducing the diffraction pattern only around bright highlights.