Born in 1958, in Łódź, Poland, as a youngster, Sobociński felt led in his father's footsteps.

[citation needed] He studied at the National Film School in Łódź and earned his degrees in 1987.

He worked with noted Polish director, Krzysztof Kieślowski in many films, starting with Dekalog (1988) and culminating with Kieślowski's final film, Three Colours: Red (1994), for which Sobociński won his first award the Silver Frog Award at Camerimage, Poland's International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography in 1994,[2] as well as an Oscar nomination the same year.

His career hit a peak in the mid-1990s when he was asked by Ron Howard to work on the film Ransom starring Mel Gibson and Rene Russo.

While filming Trapped (aka 24 Hours) in 2001, he suffered a massive heart attack and died in his sleep in Vancouver, British Columbia.