Method for automatically adapting vehicle lighting to a surrounding area of the vehicle, comprising: - lighting the surrounding area of the vehicle by means of a lighting device of the vehicle, - capturing an image of the surrounding area of the vehicle, - determining light intensities in the recorded image, - localizing dominant radiation sources at points in the image if respective light intensities of the radiation sources are higher at the points than at other points in the image, - classifying the dominant radiation sources localized in the image in terms of reflection of the light emitted by the lighting device, wherein the classification is performed in dependence on the respective light intensity of the radiation sources in the image, - ascertaining whether one of the dominant radiation sources localized in the image stems from the reflection of intrinsic light of the lighting device of the vehicle at a traffic sign and thus whether a traffic sign is present in the image of the surrounding area of the vehicle, - determining the position of the traffic sign in the surrounding area of the vehicle by evaluating the image if it has been ascertained that the traffic sign is present as dominant radiation source in the image of the surrounding area of the vehicle, - providing traffic sign information from map material of a digital map or from databases for a traffic sign that is present in the recorded scenery, - in dependence on the classification of the dominant radiation sources in terms of reflection and on the traffic sign information, changing light emitted by the lighting device of the vehicle in the direction of the determined position of the traffic sign in the surrounding area of the vehicle in a manner such that a reflection of the emitted light at the traffic sign is reduced if it has been determined that a traffic sign is present as dominant radiation source in the image of the surrounding area of the vehicle. - lighting the surrounding area of the vehicle by means of a lighting device of the vehicle, - capturing an image of the surrounding area of the vehicle, - determining light intensities in the recorded image, - localizing dominant radiation sources at points in the image if respective light intensities of the radiation sources are higher at the points than at other points in the image, - classifying the dominant radiation sources localized in the image in terms of reflection of the light emitted by the lighting device, wherein the classification is performed in dependence on the respective light intensity of the radiation sources in the image, - ascertaining whether one of the dominant radiation sources localized in the image stems from the reflection of intrinsic light of the lighting device of the vehicle at a traffic sign and thus whether a traffic sign is present in the image of the surrounding area of the vehicle, - determining the position of the traffic sign in the surrounding area of the vehicle by evaluating the image if it has been ascertained that the traffic sign is present as dominant radiation source in the image of the surrounding area of the vehicle, - providing traffic sign information from map material of a digital map or from databases for a traffic sign that is present in the recorded scenery, - in dependence on the classification of the dominant radiation sources in terms of reflection and on the traffic sign information, changing light emitted by the lighting device of the vehicle in the direction of the determined position of the traffic sign in the surrounding area of the vehicle in a manner such that a reflection of the emitted light at the traffic sign is reduced if it has been determined that a traffic sign is present as dominant radiation source in the image of the surrounding area of the vehicle.