Volumetric Lighting 101: Add Dimension to Your Cinematography 

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We used volumetric lighting on a emotionally impactfull scene in a TV series and it worked wonders, gave the shots a lot of extra depth

My favorite application of volumetric lighting was on a music video a few months ago. We used atmosphere aerosol and a cheap fog machine from a party store to create the atmosphere for the scene. A projector was then placed directly behind the actor and point in his direction. To create shafts of light that moved around and changed colors behind the musician. A key light was then slowly dimmed up to change the mood of the scene and allow the audience to see the face of the silhouetted figure. After the key was fully dimmed up, the chorus came in, and hands covered in green paint started coming in from out of frame and began painting his face. In post we keyed out the paint and replaced the green with protest footage. This gave a really cool effect and the concept fit the song perfectly. This was really one of my favorite productions.

I love seeing those shafts of light shooting through the image. Whether it’s sunlight through windows or the beams of a flashlight. They seem to add a real atmosphere to the frame!

I am learning so much from these videos! I have been using Volumetric lighting and not even recognizing it. I have a multi-source LED panel, and used a soft-box on top of it to get a wider beam angle and spill through a window to get the shadow cast from it for a Wedding shoot!

What really works well for me for dimension is actually with my photography. Of course haze in a can works great, love it, but for a location portrait shoot I go out at sunrise the morning after a heavy rain the night before. The fog/haze effect you get is absolutely incredible and is very difficult to duplicate. Add a beautiful light source, like the 120d for example, you get MAGIC!

I've never used volumetric lighting, but I'm excited to try it! I think I'd love to combine it pointing light through a shape (like window blinds or a grate, things that provide more lines) and then add haze. Thanks for the tips!

There is just something magical when you have a campfire going in the forest really early in the morning for breakfast. As the sun bursts through the canopy above, the smoke captures the rays in the most naturalistic way. That to me is a fantastic way to utilize volumetric lighting by capturing the sun glittering through carbon giants in a gentle blanket of smoke. One of my favorite ways to use this technique.

I really like using the effect that a hazy sunrise gives. You have to be up pretty early, but works really well when backlighting the subject.

Awesome guys! Thanks

I recently shot a short film, where I used volumetric lighting in a room scene. The bed was in the middle of the frame creating symmetry. An awkward conversation between father and son. The father was standing on one side of the room and the son on the other side across the bed, and I decided to shoot a light trough the window, that was behind the bed, to create volumetric lighting so that the light literally split the two characters and the audience feel the disconnection they have and how their relation is between father ans son. And it came out gorgeous Saludos from Puerto Rico

I have used volumetric lightning for photography in old wooden cabins to recreate that early morning vibe. I'm talking about that feeling when you wake up early in the morning in the woods on a dusty old cabin and you get that beams of light entering through the windows casting all sort of shapes. Looks pretty cool if you have some additional steam coming out from a cup of warm coffee, it's a bit cold and you have that dust and ash particles floating in the air from last night's fireplace.

Endless possibilities! Thanks Aputure! #volumetriclighting

The best way I use it for is to use it in a bedroom morning scene. It creates such a dream like look when the light shine through the window and hit the haze. It was an amazing feeling when I first saw the effect.

helpful again, thx guys!

Thanks Aputure 🙂 Since I started to watch every episode of your video I gain knowlegde that I can use in real world. And how wonderful it is to see this kind of video that a year ago I was amaze in some hollywood movie that doing that effect. And now I can do it because of this tutorial. Thanks again Aputure. Looking forward for more creative effect in future videos

I never used before Volumetric Lighting, thanks for the tips.

Great video. We used 55 led puck lights down a wall, and lit them sequentially, so we would get shafts of 'sunlight' ripping through the haze, as the 'wall' was cracking open like it was going to collapse!

aye shoutout YC imaging 🔥 🎥

Sometimes in exteriors you get the sunlight and you just go with it, one time I decided to use haze so the light that came throught out the trees was more dimensional, It gave my image the dynamic feeling that it need it and these are those details that make good cinematography

I used volumetric lighting for a previous student short. The director wanted a noir look with hard shadows through a Venetian blinds. We end up using cans after cans of fog/haze in a can you get that look. Tip: make sure to keep your lens clean after every take. It'll make your image very muddy whenever you create that effect over time.

The best time I used volumetric lighting was for product videography on jewelery. By directing light as narrow and focused in as possible you can highlight faces and parts of a subject more easily and it really allows for lens flare from reflections as you choose. Its also great because those glints are what catch the viewers eye and can be controlled naturally by light direction. So there's a lot of use there! ;P

amazing video.. keep up the creative work

thanks for this informative video

I never used volumentric lighting but Love your Channel because of this Informations !

A quick tip for location volumetric lighting... I picked up some aerosol atmosphere in a can. I believe they sell it on Adorama or Amazon it's about $17 a can. It's perfect when a fog machine or hazer is Impractical or unavailable!

I always like to shoot with the hard light from a window, either it's day or night. It always bring dramatic feel to my scene. And if I play with a volumetric lighting, it bring the scene to a whole new level, and also impress other people 😉. It's a reasen I got my self a single source led light, to make a volumetric lighting more accessible for me. And another alternative for fog, I use electric cigarette, the smoke will go out fast but at least it's enough for my kink of shooting. By the way, another great tips from you guys. I like your lamp very much when I rent it to shoot my short movie, keep the good lighting tips consistent👍👍

My favorite use of volumetric lighting is capturing natural light (or simulating it) through a window pane. This creates the effect we are all familiar with; dust particles floating lazily in the air and is easily accepted by an audience because of it's recognizable environment. The window itself helps shape the light especially with french panes and/or window blinds that help break up the rectangular block and add pillars of shadow (or negative space) among the pillars of light. This volumetric lighting can be used to great effect to help frame subjects with the light or guide the eye in a scene. Not to mention, the patterns and shapes created can also be used metaphorically to suggest more with visual story telling. For example, striped patterns in the volumetric light can represent bars and when cast over a subject allude to the idea of being caged, trapped, oppressed, confined, etc. Alternatively, volumetric light cast in a large open beam (often with gold tone and blue/gray background) across a subject represents light from the sky or heaven alluding to religious iconography, divine nature, blessing, re-birth, etc.

I was using all the time without knowing that it called like that, we are shooting music videos and you can find some examples on our channel. One of the best examples is “Joe mayer- there for you” because we didn’t had smoke or haze and we used a regular vape and it worked just fine you can seen it straight from the intro! Thanks

I used volumetric lighting to create a promo video for a fishing guide. The story was the a couple kids find a game system in a basement and plug it in then they're playing a "Fishing Game" which cuts to the guide on the river when they press power on the game system. It was pretty fun. Wanted the video to be "Stranger Things" in feel and look. Turned out pretty great! We had a great old looking location in our complex storage and meeting room which gave it the old vintage look that we wanted. I used practical lights inside with lamps and the TV (with a small LED light flickering out of frame). Then had 3 led panels outside these big windows with the curtains closed and some minor gaps to make it look like harsh morning / evening light coming through golden hour style. In the basement scene we also just used practicals in florescent tube ceiling lighting which gave some scenes a dark "scary" basement look. Each of the different scenes we used a hazer to "catch" the light and create environment and dimension. Volumetric lighting turned out great!

I personally never used before, but I want to start with volumetric lighting ASAP after this video :)

Cool!

i used volumetric lightning on set during a videoclip shoot for an artist we ware outside and we had our subject in front of a car. we fludded our space with haze (in front and at the back of the car) en got nice looking light beams form the front car lights.

i enjoyed seeing this video. keep going 😃

good stuff

I plan to use volumetric lighting on a western short film I’m preparing to shoot in about 2 weeks. Im using volumetric lighting to help my backyard look like the woods in the middle of the night, inspired from the lighting Roger Deakins did in the train robbery scene in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

I probably remember that, when my cup of tea was being boiled near my window, the sharp morning sunlight just passed through the grills of the window and casted a volumetric lighting with the Steam of that tea :)

Great video. Super useful. I am planning on using these techniques in my next short film "bad ranger"

it is nise to use it when you focus someone in an esenary! #volumetriclighting

I recently used volumetric lighting to give the effect of a deer about to hit the car near the woods. We had haze in front of the car and as it approached a strong beam from a fresnel light cast a shadow on the passengers giving the effect that the dear was about to hit the bonnet. It looked really cool :)

I use volumetric lighting a lot when budget doesn't allow for enough lights to fill a space properly. Using haze really helps fill up empty spaces and adds some sort of visual interest.

Most recently, I shot a short scene in a travel trailer. After I set up a Cam TV fresnel light up outside shooting through the window, I filled the trailer with fog to add some atmosphere, and give it that mysterious Spielberg look.

I’ve already used volumetric lighting a couple of times. Most of the time as a backlight. But once i used it with a lonely character. There was a small window in the room. And it was a sunny day, So with some fog I created a sun beam that perfectly hit his face. It wasn’t soft, but I liked it because the character was sad and lonely. I didn’t use any fill lights too, because the light hitting him made him look very lonely.

I used a volumetric lighting as a beam behind the subject on Camera, shoot with smoke the camera was shooting at F16 and it gave a very nice star look beam

Amazing! Now, is there any specific machine for dirt or dust? And also, do you guys reccomend and haze machines that you find the most useful? Thanks so much! 😄☺️🙏🏼

I've never actually used volumetric lighting, but I'm going to now!

Loved it I learn so much from you guys! Unfortunately I don't have the money to buy such good lights. I try to light with what I have and to get good light anyways, because it's the most important to make your shot cinematic in my opinion. Thank you for the tutorials :) keep creating!

the best effect imo is backlighting, one time i used a bunch of cellphones to create one bright spot and backlight my talent and haze the room, that looked fantastic! Why the cellphones?... because those spot lights are out of budget lol, would love to hace that mini 20 light!

I actually just had to do some volumetric lighting last weekend on a shoot. We had our actress running for her life towards a front door with a tiny window as our only light source. (Symbolizing her small window of escape from the house.) As we follow her, she is suppose to be lost in the ever growing blinding light through the window. Now, normally I had planned to use the actual sunlight, which perfectly hits the window everyday about the same time. Our problem... It was a rainy that day. So, I quickly took my 50w Ashanks spot/flood light (Sorry... don't own an aperture light :/ ), some fog in a can and used single source volumetric lighting to create a sun beam through the window to make her disappear.

I'm about to do some volumetric lighting much like in the Kendrick Lamar - Humble music video with the bright shaft shooting down on him. It's in a HUGE space so I will likely need a lot of haze.

The best time I used volumetric lighting was when I put chicken bathed in butter and cheese in the oven and burnt it. We opened the oven door to let out all the steam/smoke. It worked like a charm but the chicken was burnt to smithereens...... We cried that day at the loss of a good meal.

dirt in the air in the dessert.... most epic

I haven't tried this lighting technique yet. I don't have a good light source. If I win then I can try it :)

I recently used volumetric lighting when filming in a scene in a kitchen after the chef left what she was cooking in the oven for far too long allowing smoke/haze to flow out of the oven door filling the room. We planned to film the scene for when the sun was beaming through a rear kitchen window creating the perfect 45degree down beam angle giving us layers of light amongst the 2D image. And when I say planned...I really mean "PRODUCTION VALUE!!!" (insert scene from Super 8 here).

what is the different of volumetric lighting and glair lighting ,is it use in night effect..?

i have a wide horizontal LED, and i have been trying to do some volumetric light but whith no results, any tip someone can provide? thanks

The topic your channel choose is really awesome, but some tutorials need to be more longer in time

Had issues with a fog machine from Walmart returned it after the shoot. Any recommendations for a hazer to get the effect I want that is similar to some of these shots?

Hey Aputure? Are you ever going to publish the results of the Light this Location Film Festival? I'm eager to see who won.

Best time I used volumetric lighting? When i "Roger Deakinsed" a silouhette scene in my last short film! .... or at least that is what I would love to say, but alas, it's not true... yet! 😉😊

I used volumetric lighting to create depth and atmosphere in a church to make it look more dreamy and mysterious than cold and boring.

can it be done with 60w led?

I used a pratical light to fake a beam coming from the stars!

Could someone explain the difference between multisource lights and single source lights? tried to google it and nothing came up, thanks

Hello, I would like to be the winner of the light because I would like to create volumetric lighting but I have no lights. So this would go a long way in helping me :) thank you for the information !

The best way I used volumetric lighting is when I was doing a project recreating a Dracula esc. Film and I had a few buddy to show me for then we used a neat setup for when the vampire gets casted by a ton of sunlight and does (spoiler alert) thanks and I hope I win!

Pump up the volume..dance, dance.

Where is the ellipsoidal attachment you promised?

Here are my takeaway points from this tutorial: Film is an inherently a 2 dimensional medium, but here are volumetric lighting tricks you can use to make your 2D image into a much more cinematic 3D image! Use some of these tricks to add volume to your shot and add creative depth, dimension, and dynamic to your cinematography! Volumetric Lighting = Light Through Space. This goes beyond subject & source. It's about everything in between as well. We are going to need some Atmosphere like fog or haze. Haze works best due to its subtlety and hangs in the air longer. You can also use dirt, dust and smoke. Basically anything that hangs in the air catching the light. - Hard light works best as it creates intense sharp beams. You also need a single source light, not multi-LED panels. - Choose the smallest most powerful light and back it far away from the object you are hitting to cast shadows with. - Consider the beam angle used. Bean angles are always different between lights and fixtures. It's probably good to choose a narrow beam angle for best effect, especially if it's a practical light that is going to be seen in-frame. - Wide-beam lights can also be used but you will need to back that light off to create shadows and shapes with. The more parallel the light the more sharper the shadows. It's best to not put this kind of light in-frame, as it will just flood the particles in the air and wash out your image. - Take a look at what Atmospheric Perspective is within the art world, and how this can be applied to Cinematography. Cheers, Tony

i heard so much lighting in those video i thought you said press the like button

when I used volumetric lighting to highlight myself for a college organization video application

Thanks sexy man. Good info!

Important note, cover any smoke detectors (or remove their batteries) prior to adding haze. Don't ask me how I learned it.

I use volumetric a lot when I do club photography. Often there is very little ambient/production lighting in underground clubs. I love to setup up strobes/speedlights around the room and take advantage of the hog/faze they often have going in clubs. You can get some very interesting light funnels/streaks if you place them right. I've included an example below. instagram.com/p/BQZIN80lSo1/

I just put this into practice in a short I finished a few weeks ago. Love the effect. You guys are great. Love the information! Here's a link to the video if you want to see what I'm referring to. I think the scene is at 6:31. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-iGcSOlwKvIg.html

Have a dark grim and super flat, murky and boring location for a shoot, save the day with volumetric lighting! We had the gift of a bar to shoot this music video ad ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-5fKdU2U5qMU.html and a budget of maybe a hundred bucks. Down the street Long & Mcquade rents just the ugliest party lights and cheap fog machines, so for a hundred bucks we back lit our space, added a ton of fog and through in a laser box for good measure. Admittedly we over did it in some shots, but for an on the day solution that cost next to nothing, we took a dark hole of the back of a bar and turned it into a fun stage for a music video! Sometimes even dirt cheap gear used in the the right way can add a lot of production value without breaking the bank.

I never used before Volumetric Lighting, thanks for the tips