Method for illuminating a vehicle environment of a motor vehicle comprising an illumination device and a detection device , wherein the illumination device is configured to at least partly illuminate a solid angle region of the vehicle environment with different illumination patterns , in particular with visible light, wherein the illumination patterns each predefine illumination intensities for different solid angle subregions of the solid angle region, comprising the following steps: - illuminating the vehicle environment with a first of the illumination patterns by means of the illumination device , - detecting, by means of the detection device , a light pattern resulting from the illumination of the vehicle environment with the first illumination pattern , - selecting a second of the illumination patterns depending on the detected light pattern , and - illuminating the vehicle environment with the second illumination pattern by means of the illumination device , wherein depending on the detected light pattern - it is recognized whether there is an unevenness and/or an obstacle in the solid angle region and/or - a class is allocated to a recognized unevenness and/or a recognized obstacle by means of a classification algorithm and/or - a position of the recognized unevenness and/or of the recognized obstacle is determined, wherein the selection of the second illumination pattern depends on the class and/or the position and/or on whether there is an unevenness and/or an obstacle in the solid angle region, characterized in that height information is in each case determined depending on the first illumination pattern and the detected light pattern for sections of a driving plane located in the solid angle region, and a height profile of the driving plane is thus extracted from the detected light pattern , the recognition and/or classification of the unevenness and/or of the obstacle and/or the determination of the position being effected depending on the height information. - illuminating the vehicle environment with a first of the illumination patterns by means of the illumination device , - detecting, by means of the detection device , a light pattern resulting from the illumination of the vehicle environment with the first illumination pattern , - selecting a second of the illumination patterns depending on the detected light pattern , and - illuminating the vehicle environment with the second illumination pattern by means of the illumination device , wherein depending on the detected light pattern - it is recognized whether there is an unevenness and/or an obstacle in the solid angle region and/or - a class is allocated to a recognized unevenness and/or a recognized obstacle by means of a classification algorithm and/or - a position of the recognized unevenness and/or of the recognized obstacle is determined, wherein the selection of the second illumination pattern depends on the class and/or the position and/or on whether there is an unevenness and/or an obstacle in the solid angle region, characterized in that height information is in each case determined depending on the first illumination pattern and the detected light pattern for sections of a driving plane located in the solid angle region, and a height profile of the driving plane is thus extracted from the detected light pattern , the recognition and/or classification of the unevenness and/or of the obstacle and/or the determination of the position being effected depending on the height information. <EOS>