A browser-based lighting simulator

If you've ever set up lights for a portrait or a talking head video, you know how it goes. You move a light, check the monitor, move it again, adjust the power, and check again. It takes time, and if you're working with a subject, they're sitting there waiting while you figure it out.

That's why I built Lumen Tool. It's a browser-based lighting tool with a 3D head, adjustable lighting and instant visual feedback on how shadows and highlights fall across a face.

Lumen Tool is the creative workspace, with Photo Lighting, Artist Lighting, Reference Lab and The Archive. Set Builder is still in development. The public site explains and demonstrates the product; the working tools require a subscription.

Good to know: Lumen Tool does not work on mobile phones. It works on modern tablets, but it was designed for desktop use. For the full experience, use it on a desktop or laptop.

What it does

When you open Photo Lighting or Artist Lighting, you're looking at a 3D model of a head. You can work with Key Light, Fill Light, Back Light and Hair Light and adjust intensity, colour temperature, height, angle, distance and softness. As you move things around, the result updates in real time.

Move the Key Light to 45 degrees and watch the shadow appear on the opposite side of the nose. Raise or lower the light and the character of the face changes immediately. Shift the Kelvin warmer or cooler and you can see the colour balance change as you work.

There are built-in starting points for classic lighting patterns such as Rembrandt, Butterfly, Split and Loop. Every preset is simply a starting point. You can keep moving and adjusting everything afterwards.

You can also change the skin tone of the model and the backdrop tone. This makes it easier to judge separation, contrast and the overall feel of a setup in different situations.

The backdrop is a visual background. It helps you judge the relationship between the subject and the background, but it does not behave like a physical studio wall that reflects light back into the scene.

You can rotate the model and zoom in or out, so you can inspect the lighting from different angles instead of relying on a single fixed view.

Lumen Tool

Lumen Tool is a subscription-based creative workspace built around its lighting studios and supporting modules.

Inside Photo Lighting and Artist Lighting you get access to additional lights such as Fill Light, Back Light and Hair Light, together with more advanced controls and lighting setups. You can switch between the 3D view, a top-down diagram and a setup overview where available.

You can save setups, compare different versions, export images, print setups, rename lights, flip the model and share a direct link to a specific lighting setup.

There are additional controls for gel colours, skin tones, backdrops and other lighting options. The analysis panel gives you a quick indication of things such as key-to-fill balance, likely lighting pattern, colour differences and the effect of changing distance. These readings are intentionally estimates, not a physical light meter reading.

Lumen Tool also includes separate modules such as Reference Lab and the Archive, with more studios and modules being added over time.

Why I built it

There are already very powerful professional tools for lighting and shoot planning.

set.a.light 3D, for example, is a full desktop studio simulator. It lets you build complete sets using large libraries of models, lights, modifiers and other studio equipment. It is installed software and is designed for a much broader and more detailed type of virtual shoot planning.

Lumen Tool approaches the problem differently. I wanted something that opens in a browser and gets you working immediately. No software installation, no large asset library to download and no need to construct an entire virtual studio before you can start experimenting with light.

Open the tool, move a light and see what happens.

That speed and simplicity are deliberate. Lumen Tool is not trying to replace a complete 3D studio package. It is designed for photographers, videographers and creators who want a fast visual way to understand, plan and communicate lighting, before building it for real.

How it works

Lumen Tool runs directly in your browser. The 3D scene is rendered live, so when you move a light or change one of its settings, you see the result immediately, without building a complex 3D scene or learning a full rendering package first.

Your actual camera, light output, modifier, room and subject will always affect the final result. Lumen Tool gives you the visual plan and the understanding of what the light is doing. The final exposure is something you fine-tune on set.

Access to Lumen Tool requires an account and subscription. One plan includes the lighting studios, heads, setup controls, saving and comparison tools, Reference Lab, the Archive and all other current and future studios and modules.

If you have ideas for features, or if something doesn't behave the way you expect, feel free to send me a message. I built Lumen Tool to be genuinely useful for photographers, videographers and anyone else who works with light, and I want to keep improving it based on how people actually use it.

Contact me via franck@lumentool.com. You can also check out my other apps on Gear Takes.

Enjoy, and happy lighting.

Franck