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Don't forget to check the exposure settings in the Render tab. If it's set to a high exposure value, you'll need an obscene amount of light. I tend to use high values and lots of light as I'd read that this produces better renders in less time. My experiments bear this out.
I've found Iray (now that we have access to all the free shaders) to work very well. I can apply shaders to items and have them look great with little work. I've downloaded and installed every Iray set available. The invisible light boxes also work very well. The only aspect that gives me grief is using exterior lighting. I like to have a nice scene outside the windows and have the outside light show up on the inside. Unfortunately, if it's bright enough to make visible shadows inside, then the view outside gets blown completely white.
@not-hunter
Ah, OK exposure settings.
What values would you recommend for a typical interior render?
🙂
I tend to use HDRI for pretty much anything outdoor. You can use an HDRI for the lighting (skydome) and use a backplate outside the window (assuming you're facing it) by placing an environment background in the scene (rather than using a plane with an image on it). That way the HDR will still come through the window but won't blow out the backplate.... of course this method fails if you don't have a 4 walled set as the HDR will come in through any open area (though that could also be solved using an HDR editor and masking out the areas that would be coming through the missing wall(s))
@eelgoo, Right now I'm playing with the Lingerie Store and have an exposure value of 13, which I feel is somewhat low. With the lights (with emission shaders) at their present settings and with a resolution of 900X1200 pixels I get a grainy preview in a couple of minutes. Ten minutes gives me something I can use to judge the quality of the shaders I've applied. To speed up and improve renders, I've resorted to cranking up both the exposure value and light strength as this seems to work well and the consensus on the Daz forums is that Iray loves lots of light.
I've also added a panoramic image to the outside so that something shows up through the front doors...which that lazy shit Truform has neglected to include. It's a good thing I have lots of geometry I can steal from other sets.
It's interesting that he's made all the drawers in all the place separate items. I'm going to delete all of them except one of each type and use Studios new-ish 'clone' thing-a-ma-jig. This is supposed to reduce the geometry count considerably while still allowing the effect of lots of individual items.
Lighting has always been the hardest thing in DAZ. I am not a master of it in any way but I do have some photo and drawing theory I can pass along.
One of the objectives of 3 point lighting is to get 3 different tones on your model to shape the surface, move the eye around the model or highlight a certain area. It is a basic drawing technique. Essentially photographers draw with light.
I think HDRIs are great but they ruin good 3 point lighting. They throw light everywhere. Very uncontrollable unlike in a studio situation. So for good lighting turn off Dome lighting in the render settings unless that is what you are looking for. All around room lighting.
The render is done with 3 point lighting and no HDRI. Look at the arm and see how it is shaped by the 3 different tones. Or the head has nice 3 tone lighting. If you look at the hand next to her face you see it is flat looking. There is only 1 light hitting it so it only has 2 tones.
This 3 point lighting is 2 spots opposite of each other with 2 different strengths (distance from model can also be used as how bright/sharp a light is) and a fill light softbox next to the camera. I like JM's proper emmisive lights for rather accurate studio lighting.
You could mess around with this for hours and real photographers plan a photoshoot for days. Hope this helps. Or is at least good.
@silverboax,
I've tried this with crap results. Do you use a basic plane as the backplate? Does this backplate cast it's own shadow? In what I'm working on now (the Lingerie Store), I'd like a street scene outside and have the outside light shining into the store to augment the store's own lighting.@Picaya,
A trick we use is to have a book in the studio with pages (and pages and pages and...) of lighting setups. The floor will be covered with tape that has cryptic symbols and numbers indicating where the lights go. You refer to the book for light settings that have been worked out in the past. Outside shoots can work the same but you have to take the ambient light into account. After you've done if for many years, you place each light so many paces away in such and such direction, set each one at f-whatever, shoot at f-this and so many seconds, with an ISO of I-like-this-setting. Pros may look like we have some magical ability but in reality it's just a shitload of experience.@Ethiopia I would say that is proper photographic lighting. Outside lighting will always overpower inside lighting. You need to have some lighting inside to balance out the outside brightness without killing all the shadows. Usually just a fill light. In photographic terms things are measured in ratios. So if your outside light is 4 times brighter than inside that is a 4 to 1 ratio. Your shadows can also be measure in ratios. A darker shadow is created by a higher contrast ratio. A camera cannot capture a 4 to 1 difference in lighting (outside 4 inside 1) without one being blown out or the other underexposed.
When I photographed stuff I would have to add an inside fill light just to get the balance between inside and outside within the exposure of the camera 1st. Then mess with shadows.
@Ethiopia yes. I work on tv and movie sets these days and watching those lighting guys or DP's work is really amazing.
Fake light just looks fake. Not much can compare to an overcast day, the first or last light of the day, window light.
So would and HD image be as close to a "real" digital equivalent of perfect light. Minus of course all the glam stuff like side and hair lights?
Wow, i feel like i just opened a pandora box by asking you guys (and girls!) tips and your opinions about lighting in Daz Studio. Seems to be quite a huge subject. A few of you already lost me with "Lumens", "emissive" and "exposure value". Ha ha ha.
But all your tips are really interesting and helping. Thank a lot.
@Dragon: Thank you. I'll do that and try those Lighting ressource and play with them like you suggested. I'm mainly looking for bright outdoor settings and/or really well-lighted interior. (Think like a classroom with many huge Fluorescent Lights everywhere on the celling.)https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=photography+tips
Pretty much spend a week watching videos.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCknMR7NOY6ZKcVbyzOxQPhw/videos
This guy is great to watch.
Too much info for one day to take in and expect to utilize all at once, but its in the back of the mind now. And since I've played around in DS long enough over the past 1/2 + year or so, I'm pretty well versed in where things are that have been mentioned. I played with exposure before I knew about the Lumen setting.
@Checkit1414 LOL its kinda like that.(Or a bag of holding). But once you start playing around, opening the panes/tabs and looking through them and seeing whats there, you'll become more familiar. There are vid tutorials out that can help explain different aspects too as well as here, as you can see, people with different experiences and knowledge. I'm far from being adept with Daz Studio, but I find myself flying around the workspace now. And I pick up odds and ends from others here and their discussions with others.
@Adam lol, I just mentioned watching videos as your posting links to videos. Greats minds. 😉
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