With a few minutes to kill before bed and a request that I'd simply forgotten about I quickly slapped this together. Just to demonstrate the glare node for Bananaboy. The textures are extremely rough and will need some work if you intend to use it in a hero render. However, the modelling is fairly solid so that should be workable.
The image that shows the lamp alight is very effective.
Perhaps that should have been your main image, because it shows the real purpose of the blend. Your current title doesn't do it justice - be bolder!
This simply answers the "how to apply glow/glare" question, great post! I've tried to boost the glare by playing with the threshold, but it's not enough, adding a RGB Curves Node whitens the renders so it's not a solution. How do you do yourself?
Thank you so much!!! :)