diff --git a/src/traces/surface/attributes.js b/src/traces/surface/attributes.js
index 613f7c172f6..4bfeef84b2e 100644
--- a/src/traces/surface/attributes.js
+++ b/src/traces/surface/attributes.js
@@ -161,7 +161,7 @@ module.exports = {
             role: 'style',
             min: -1e5,
             max: 1e5,
-            dflt: 1e5,
+            dflt: 1e4,
             description: 'Numeric vector, representing the Y coordinate for each vertex.'
         },
         z: {
diff --git a/src/traces/surface/convert.js b/src/traces/surface/convert.js
index eadc2d4e9e6..2da7d0be209 100644
--- a/src/traces/surface/convert.js
+++ b/src/traces/surface/convert.js
@@ -335,13 +335,7 @@ proto.update = function(data) {
     }
 
     if('lightposition' in data) {
-        if(surface.lightPosition === void(0)) {
-            surface.lightPosition = [data.lightposition.x, data.lightposition.y, data.lightposition.z];
-        } else {
-            surface.lightPosition.x = data.lightposition.x;
-            surface.lightPosition.y = data.lightposition.y;
-            surface.lightPosition.z = data.lightposition.z;
-        }
+        surface.lightPosition = [data.lightposition.x, data.lightposition.y, data.lightposition.z];
     }
 
     if(alpha && alpha < 1) {
diff --git a/test/image/baselines/gl3d_surface-lighting.png b/test/image/baselines/gl3d_surface-lighting.png
index d885c341384..55ae74160ca 100644
Binary files a/test/image/baselines/gl3d_surface-lighting.png and b/test/image/baselines/gl3d_surface-lighting.png differ
diff --git a/test/image/mocks/gl3d_surface-lighting.json b/test/image/mocks/gl3d_surface-lighting.json
index 99fbab5bbb4..19144a44559 100644
--- a/test/image/mocks/gl3d_surface-lighting.json
+++ b/test/image/mocks/gl3d_surface-lighting.json
@@ -513,7 +513,7 @@
       "lightposition": {
         "x": 1e5,
         "y": 1e5,
-        "z": 1e5
+        "z": 1e4
       },
       "lighting": {
         "fresnel": 0.2,