Want to add lights to a scene in post?
If you’ve got an item or VFX element in your scene that should be giving off some light, you can do it in a few steps.
Casey Faris show you how:
- Adding an image to the light source with planar tracker
- Merging on a glow
- Adjusting the colors & boosting brightness
Of course doing it in production is ideal, but this is fairly simple when you’re not able to.
This same technique can be used for VFX elements, props, practical lamps that were turned off, and more.
What do you think, is this something you’ll use for your projects?

Gedaly is the Managing Editor of DVresolve.com. He is a professional editor, having cut national commercials for major companies, and does color & VFX for indie films at Mask & Feather. He’s also a filmmaker, writing and directing shorts & features. Gedaly is the co-founder of Working.Actor and former marketing strategist for large brands.