Lighting
The Lighting panel manages every scene light — from simple studio fills to physically accurate emitters with IES profiles. All lights render with full ray-tracing: shadows, bounce light, and caustics follow the physics of the chosen light type.
Access: View ▸ Lighting (if the panel list is greyed out, choose View ▸ Unlock Advanced UI first). The panel docks in side columns only.
Panel layout
Light list — the master list of all lights in the document. Each row shows the light name, type icon, and status indicators. The padlock at the right of each row locks the light against edits (saved with the document). The list is always visible.
Toolbar — above the light list.
Detail area — below the list. Shows all controls for the selected light. Empty when nothing is selected.
Managing lights
Add a light
Click Add a new light in the toolbar. A type picker appears — select a type. The new light is added to the list and selected. The type is fixed once added.
Basic types: Point, Sun, Spot, Area
Shaped emitters: Softbox, Octabox, Strip-box, Beauty Dish, Umbrella, Shoot-through, Panel, Tube, Ring, Lantern, PAR
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Point | Omnidirectional spherical source |
| Sun | Parallel-ray infinite light; simulates direct sunlight |
| Spot | Directed cone of light with a configurable beam spread |
| Area | Rectangular, disc or ellipse surface emitter (Shape options: Square / Rectangle / Disk / Ellipse) |
Shaped emitters combine an emissive surface profile with a housing; their specific dimensions vary by type.
Duplicate a light
Select a light, then click Duplicate the selected light.
Delete a light
Select a light, then click Delete the selected light.
Rename a light
Select a light, then click Rename the selected light.
Mute and solo
The toolbar provides two visibility controls for the selected light:
| Button | Action |
|---|---|
| Mute | Excludes the selected light from the render. |
| Solo | Makes only the selected light contribute to the render; all others are excluded. |
Save and revert a light
Save this light as its baseline saves the current settings as the light's baseline. Revert this light to its saved baseline restores the saved settings. The baseline is a per-light checkpoint within the document; it is separate from document save/undo.
Light controls
The detail area contains sections. Which sections and rows appear depends on the selected light type.
Light
Shows the type name and icon. Read-only — the type cannot be changed after a light is added.
Colour
| Control | Notes |
|---|---|
| Colour | Click the swatch to open the colour picker in RGB mode, or type a Kelvin value (800–20 000 K) in Kelvin mode. |
| Colour mode | RGB / Kelvin — switches how the Colour value is entered. |
Power
| Control | Notes |
|---|---|
| Power | Emission intensity in the selected unit. |
| Unit | Power (W) / Luminous flux (lm) / Illuminance (lx @ d) / Intensity (cd) / Exposure (EV). Shown rows depend on the light type. Switching unit converts the number — the light's output does not change. |
| Illuminance read-out | Read-only distance-referenced value. Always shown. |
| Measured at | Distance at which the illuminance value is measured. Shown only with Illuminance (lx @ d). |
Dimensions
These rows appear only for types that have a physical size.
| Row | Notes |
|---|---|
| Size | Overall emitting surface size (caption shows Width or Diameter depending on type) |
| Depth | Depth of the housing (shaped emitters) |
| Shape | Surface shape variant. Area lights: Square / Rectangle / Disk / Ellipse |
| Size U / Size V | Independent width and height for rectangular emitters |
| Spread | Cone half-angle or beam angle |
| Cone angle | Outer cone for spot-style types |
| Falloff | Spot blend edge softness (0–1) |
| Source radius | Sphere radius (Point) |
| Angular size | Angular diameter (Sun) |
| Grid | Eggcrate cell half-angle, 0°–90° (0 or 90 = no grid) |
| Diffusion | Number of internal baffles, 0–2 |
| Ribs | Housing rib count |
| Finish | Housing surface finish: White / Silver / Gold / Translucent |
| Radius | Tube or ring radius |
| Length | Length of linear emitters |
| Emissive arc | Arc angle for ring types |
| LED segments | Segment count for LED array types |
| Lock aspect ratio | Constrains width to height |
| Emissive end caps | Lights from tube end faces |
Placement
| Control | Notes |
|---|---|
| Position X / Y / Z | World-space position in millimetres. |
| Aim X / Y / Z | World-space aim point. |
| Rotate | ±180° rotation around the aim axis. |
| Lock aim to target | Keeps the light pointed at its target while the light moves. |
| Show beam cone | Draws the beam cone in the viewport as a visual guide. |
Advanced
Light Shaping
Barn doors
Toggle Barn doors to add lateral cutoff to the beam (real geometry on shaped emitters; analytic cut on bare lights).
| Control | Options / Range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Flaps | Linked / H + V pairs / Independent | How the four flap angles relate to each other. |
| Flap angles (×4) | 0°–110° | Top, bottom, left and right cutoff angles. |
| Flap depth | 0–5 | Multiple of the aperture. |
Throw (Spot only) — Reference cone length when the beam hits nothing (scene units).
IES profile
Click Pick a photometric .ies profile… to load a .ies photometric file. The light distribution changes to match the profile's candela data, and the Power value is bypassed — the IES file sets the output. Click Remove the IES profile (fall back to the analytic light) to return to the geometric distribution.
Colour Filter
Gel — a colour that multiplies the light (useful for CTO/CTB effects). Click the swatch to choose a colour. Click Remove the gel to reset to white. There is no image browse for gels.
Rendering
| Control | Notes |
|---|---|
| Visible to camera | Whether the light source itself is seen in the render. |
| Visible in reflections | Whether the light source appears in reflective surfaces. |
| Diffuse | Toggles this light's contribution to diffuse surfaces. |
| Transmission | Toggles contribution through transmissive materials. |
| Volume scatter | Toggles contribution to volumetric effects. |
| Cast shadows | Enables shadow casting from this light. |
| Multiple importance sampling | Samples the light directly for noise reduction. |
| Shadow caustics | Enables photon caustics from this light. Caustics significantly increase render time. |
| Emitting side | Both / Front / Back — which face of a surface emitter contributes. Back inverts the direction. |
| Portal (guide samples through openings) | Guides samples through architectural openings for more efficient interior lighting. |
| Normalize (constant total power) | Keeps total emitted power constant regardless of source size. |
| Show housing | Shows the physical housing geometry in the render. |
| Detail | Standard / High / Ultra / Extreme — housing geometry resolution. |
| Max bounces | Override the global ray-depth for this light. 0–1024 (slider 0–32). |
Lighting Materials section
Lists every material in the document that is set to emit light. Turn a row's switch on to include that material as a light source in the scene; off, the material still glows visually but does not contribute to lighting calculations. Each row shows the material name and Open this material in the editor to open it in the Material editor.
The section is hidden when the document contains no emissive materials.
Embedded mode
When a light is edited from inside the Material editor, the panel shows only its controls — there is no list, toolbar or Lighting Materials section.
Common tasks
- Basic three-point setup — Add three Area lights: Key (main), Fill (opposite, lower power), Rim (behind the product, narrow spread with a Strip-box). Adjust brightness ratio to taste.
- Match a photographic reference — Add a light, set Unit to Illuminance (lx @ d), enter the reference value, and set Measured at to the measured distance. The light does not need to be repositioned.
- Isolate a specular highlight — Click Solo for the light you want to examine.
- Compare before/after an IES profile — Save the baseline, load the IES, compare, Revert if needed.
Related tasks
- View ▸ Light Inspector — toggles the small light inspector overlay at the bottom left of the viewport. On by default.
- Viewport right-click ▸ Add Light — opens the same type picker as the toolbar and creates a new light.
Undo and recovery
Edit ▸ Undo (Ctrl+Z) is available for light changes. Light baseline saves (Save) are a separate per-light checkpoint within the document; use Revert this light to its saved baseline to restore them.
Related pages
- ./environment — HDRI dome, environment presets and light pins
- ./materials — material definitions referenced by Lighting Materials