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Lighting Control


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Dear Members,

 

I am having a hard time finding a consistent or predictable work flow for lighting an interior render, I've researched as much as I can, watched all the videos but I am still struggling to arrive at consistent control or predictability.

 

I have modelled a hotel Lobby with marble floor and four slim mirrored pillars running through the space with revolving glass entrance doors. My camera is set up at the back of the space looking towards the entrance. I am trying to render a daylight interior, I have limited window access for a bright render.

 

I wanted to use natural light and create a good quality presentable render with soft shadows. I have set up my workflow to use C4D directly from the design layer to try and limit the render time in returning useable results.

 

I tried a Heliodon which partly fulfils my need but I can't control the intensity. Point lights make the interior look grey and flat.

 

I tried to alter the exposure on the camera but that had zero effect, as far as I can see it just doesn't work, even doing an external test on an untitled test file, I coudln't get camera exposure  to have an effect on brightness.

 

I am trying to use directional light, one outside and one placed inside but I can't get control of the intensity in fact the results are wildly unpredictable. Sometimes I get very little light, sometimes the scene is completely bleached out.

 

I can edit the directional light through the O.Info palette if I select my light as an object in the model, or I can edit the direcitonal light properties by double clicking on the light in the visualisation palette and thirdly I can edit the directional light(s) in the "send to C4D>custom renderworks>lighting options" palette, all three editing options have slightly different layouts and between them I feel like a dog chasing it's tail. I still fail to see any effect when I choose "use emitter" in fact between "use emitter"(%) "brightness" (%) "brightness value" (lux) "dimmer" (%) I am going blind. I can't get consistent enough results to actually see what each of these settings actually does.

 

Needless to say I am frustrated. I am really looking for some sane lighting option advice that might give me a sense of solid understanding when it comes to lighting, particularly interior natural light scenes.

 

Thanks, this board is very helpful.

Edited by timmysmith
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Hello Herbie,

 

I tried the first few steps of this advice today and I can see a vast improvement as soon as I used the HDRI at %500.

That has given me the starting point that I need. From here on I am OK. I tried that before when I was doing my testing but I must have had other sources on which clouded (ha ha) the results. An increased intensity HDRI is giving me the attractive natural light I wanted.

Thanks for your help.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hello,

Heliodons brightness can be controlled in the OIP. If using Custom Renderworks or a Renderworks Style in order for the camera's exposure to take effect you must have 'Camera Effects' checked.

Also if you right click a light in the Vis Palette in a viewport you can edit that light just for that viewport. Also, don't forget for easy editing, once a viewport has rendered or when you have exported one as an image, click the 'image Effects' in the OIP. There you will be able to adjust the exposure, saturation and so on.

 

Cheers,

Peter

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