Types of Lighting and The Feelings They Produce

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Lighting is a fundamental part of imagery. Weather, regardless of how that image has been created. Good lighting can emphasise depth, control colour and support the structures it reflects off of. (Since Blender is my primary 3D software, I will be referencing it throughout this and any future posts.)

Lighting In Blender

As I briefly touched on in my previous post, what makes a good render? - The foundation

 Lighting is one of the 3 most important aspects when creating a beautiful image. Light isn't like a light switch. It has many different values and variables that determine things like Colour, temperature and intensity.

Types of light sources in Blender

Within Blender, you can highlight any scene in seconds. When in the viewport, press [Shift] + [A] to bring up the Add menu. Hover over the Light option and select one of the four options. (Don't worry, you can change the kind of light source later).

Once you add the light to the scene, you most likely won't see it. "Why?" The default cube is covering it. To get rid of this cube so you can see the light source, click on the cube (it should be highlighted in yellow when it's selected). Delete with either Right-clicking in the viewport and selecting delete in the pop-up menu, or you can press the X key or the Delete key. (I am not referring to the backspace key, that won't do anything.)

If you selected a point light, then it may be hard to see it in the scene. (Don't worry! He's still there!) Since it's so small, just hold down the left mouse button and drag over the 3D Cursor. By default, your 3D cursor should be at 0,0,0. You can set the position to 0,0,0 in the side menu.

The Controls

Now that the light source is selected, we can move over to the properties panel. You will learn quickly that this panel is your lifeline for design!

Click on the green lightbulb to open the Data properties. There are three drop-down items: The Preview section, the Light section, and the custom properties section.

The Preview section shows what the light will look like in the scene. This is connected in real time to the section below. This means you won't have to view how the light looks in the viewport in rendered mode.

The light Section is where you will spend %99 of your time adjusting the light source.

There are 4 main kinds of lamps: Point, Sun, Spot and Area. Each lamp type has its own pros and cons. I have created a chart to help you understand each type more in-depth.

To increase the brightness/intensity of the lamp (regardless of the type), increase the power of the lamp. Be mindful that when the intensity increases, the saturation of the light will decrease and the colour will fade to white.

Other methods of lighting

Lamps aren't always the best option. An Emission Shader is more useful than a Lamp when you need the object itself to be the source of light, rather than just being illuminated by an invisible source. This could be useful as an asset, like a smartphone screen.

To make an object glow, select the object and go to the materials tab. Click New and select principled shader. This will now bring up the surface menu. Now select the emission shader.

Increase the intensity to make the material glow. The same principle will apply where past a certain value in the strength slider, the intensity of the colour will fade towards white.

HDRI lighting

HDRI (High Dynamic Range Imaging) lighting is a popular technique where a special kind of image projects light from all directions at different values depending on the image. The HDRI wraps around your entire scene like a sphere and provides both direct lighting AND reflected light. It can also provide realistic lighting and reflections! (This kind of lighting is great for product visualisation or outdoor scenes.)

"So, when should you avoid HDRI lighting?" HDRI provides fixed, realistic lighting. This can be limiting when making creative adjustments. Avoid high-resolution HDRIs hardware restrictions could come into play. Try using a low resolution for basic lighting for scenes. If you are worried about having a low-resolution background for your render, you can go to your properties tab > Render tab > and select transparent.

Adding lights

When lighting a scene, it is important to think of where the light is coming from. Is it coming through a window? Is the camera outside or inside? Are there extra light sources like neon signs or phone screens? When taking your renders from meh to yay! Remember the three-point lighting setup.

• Key light: The primary, brightest light source. It defines the main shading and highlights on your subject. (I recommend an area lamp.)

• Fill light: A softer, dimmer light placed on the opposite side of the Key Light. It "fills in" the harsh shadows created by the key, revealing detail without creating a second shadow. (I recommend an area lamp.)

• Back light: Placed behind the subject, aimed at their back/edges. This creates a bright outline, separating the subject from the background and adding a professional polish. (I recommend a smaller area lamp or a spot light.)

Colour and temperature

For a more realistic look, enable "Use nodes" for your lamps and connect a Blackbody node to determine the correct shade for the corresponding temperature. A value of about 6500K is pure white; below this, your light source will be warmer, and above this value, it will become cooler.

Realism and Efficiency

Light decay is a factor that can be easily forgotten. Light will get dimmer the further it travels. To create this effect in Blender, enable inverse square falloff in your light settings. Use volume scattering to create atmospheric environments along with real-world reflections.

Use Irradiance Volumes for better indirect lighting and Reflection Cube maps for more accurate reflections. Remember to take into consideration that light bounces. Depending on your materials, you should be able to see light from one object to another.

There are so many different elements when working with light. It's much more than a light switch.

Thank you for reading!

By Ava O'Brien

28/11/2025