Help with lighting a render

[RJenni 0]

I'm looking for some advice on lighting a render. I work in retail and need to do quick renders to show how product would be displayed.  A lot of these renders are only one wall.  The light always lets them down as they don't look realistic.  I need to show ambient lighting or spotlights as well as some feature lighting.  Would this be because I am not closing the area off (with 4 walls) or is there certain tips I could use to enhance the way I am lighting.

 

In the images shown it's almost like a grey film over the top and they don't seem as sharp as they shoud be.  Any help would be much appreciated.

 

 

Edited January 28 by RJenni

[RJenni 0]

I've managed the under shelf lighting but had to leave the spotlights out as it was throwing the brightness off. Also the lightbox on the backwall was hard to achieve as I had to put the image on in photoshop after I had rendered but it should really have more of a glow.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 28 by RJenni

[Kevin Allen 275]

Well, the lightbox, I wouldn't use lighting as much as a glow texture on the image. Similarly, I would add a white glow texture to the downlighting in the ceiling. In this case, the texture would have "cast Shadows" turned off so that the VWX lIght Objects above could pass through.

[Kevin K 183]

@RJenni Yeah, Kevin Allen is spot on suggesting simply adding a 'glow' to the texture. It works wonders when using recessed lighting in ceilings, etc. I use it often in my renderings.

 

 

[Kevin K 183]

@RJenni Also, sometimes the output resolution for a particular sheet layer can make a huge difference relating to your comment about sharpness, etc. Pump that baby up!!  Depending, but on sheet layers for an 8x11 page I usually use between 400-600 dpi minimum. 

[RJenni 0]

@Kevin Allen @Kevin K thank you both for your comments. I’ll give the glow texture a try. Also I tried the resolution on another render and that worked a treat.

 

@Kevin K your render looks great. I see a lot of the light would be external sunlight coming in through the glazed roof, would I need to do an extra light source if I turned the spotlights to glow. Thanks!

[Kevin K 183]

@RJenni Yes, with that particular render, I used a directional light with shadows to get some natural light streaming in from the exterior. 

[Luis M Ruiz 268]

I'd recommend you use a combination of glow textures and spotlight pointing down. Do not fall on the trap of adding a point light, that triggers rays in all directions and your shadows will not look correct. Also, once the render is done, add a little cone of light image (.png) to enhance the effect. Here is a sample. 

[scottmoore 339]

Kind of late to the party. All of the above suggestions are good ones. Indirect lighting (multiple bounces” makes a huge difference in the appearance of renders. Not having all the walls to reflect off of will impact the overall look. Otherwise, spending time adjusting light levels, possibly selecting various ies files, is critical. It can take a while to get right but usually worth the effort. 

[Luis M Ruiz 268]

Here is a work in progress, but I wanted to share an interior rendering of an idea for a home office.  Lots of items here and several light objects using realistic, smooth, backlit and glow attributes.  The final rendering was rendered in the cloud using a rendering style, settings included here. Once the final project is ready, I'll make the file available.