Volumetric Lighting 101: Add Dimension to Your Cinematography

Film is an inherently 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! These volumetric lighting tricks are commonly used in music videos, feature films, narrative shorts, and others!

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Summary:
Ted Sim teaches how to use dust, haze, and other cinematic volumetric effects to make a 2D image into a 3D image. Aputure's YouTube channel provides free high quality cinematography, lighting, and filmmaking educational content to help you take your film projects to the next level.

[dimivakrilov]

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

[casualking]

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.

[TheJayCubitt]

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!

[joshsalinas]

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.

[jowysantiago]

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

[sheggy]

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!

[marcegido]

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.

[arcilla]

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.

[geoffheith]

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!

[ThomasBloomLifeAdventurer]

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.

[jamieoxenham]

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!

[WonderingPictures]

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! 😄☺️🙏🏼

[chriskang]

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.

[LeoMarketingElPaso]

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!

[JIYkp]

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.

[kuxvibes]

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

[Kaileecristina]

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!

[nandhabalamurugan]

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 :)

[tristanmurff]

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

[jameskrick]

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!