1. A method of augmenting an appearance of a first virtual object, comprising: capturing a visual scene for display, wherein the visual scene includes a physical object and wherein the visual scene is captured using one or more camera devices; identifying the physical object as a object type, by analyzing the visual scene to determine a plurality of edges of the physical object within the visual scene and further based on coloration of the physical object within the visual scene; retrieving a predefined object profile corresponding to the first object type, wherein the predefined object profile specifies a measure of natural coloration of objects of the first object type; determining a plurality of attributes of a light source within an environment in which the physical object is located, based on an appearance of the physical object in the captured visual scene and the retrieved predefined object profile corresponding to the first object type, wherein the plurality of attributes include at least (i) a position of the light source within the environment and (ii) a measure of coloration of the light source, and wherein the measure of coloration of the light source is determined by comparing the appearance of the physical object within the captured visual scene to the measure of natural coloration of objects of the first object type; simulating lighting effects for the first virtual object based on the plurality of attributes of the light source; and rendering, by operation of one or more computer processors, a sequence of frames for display that includes the first virtual object, wherein the appearance of the first virtual object in the rendered sequence of frames is augmented by applying the simulated lighting effects to the first virtual object, thereby simulating an application of the light source within the environment to the first virtual object.