How to achieve authentic natural lighting in Lumion
Tips for mastering natural lighting in your renders
Illuminating architecture
Natural light is key to creating visualizations that feel both real and engaging. Since light shapes how we perceive spaces in the real world, accurately capturing it in your renders can make a world of difference in how they're experienced.
Natural light highlights textures, casts dynamic shadows, and adds depth, giving your scenes a sense of atmosphere and life.
As an architect or designer, understanding how sunlight interacts with your design—throughout the day and across seasons—can guide important decisions, making your spaces functional and beautiful.
With Lumion, analyzing and simulating natural light is straightforward, thanks to a few simple, intuitive tools. Let’s explore how they work.
Try these tips yourself
If you’re new to Lumion, you can still follow along with this guide with a free trial. Get yours now to enjoy 14 days of unlimited access to the latest version of Lumion Pro.
Styles
Looking for a quick and effective way of capturing certain climates or times of day? Lumion’s preset styles come in handy here. Choose from a wide range of templates, including day, blue hour, and overcast, to instantly recreate your desired lighting conditions.
You’ll find these in photo mode by clicking the Custom style button.
Designing with light
Don’t forget, you can combine these tips to achieve the exact result you’re looking for. Natural lighting can transform any project, whether it’s through sun placement, realistic skies, or ray-traced shadows and reflections.
Not using the latest version of Lumion? Upgrade to Lumion 2024 today for instant access to all the latest features and updates as soon as they’re released. You’ll discover real-time ray tracing, high-quality PBR materials, lifelike animated characters, and much more.