starting rule of thumb for camera and lighting

Hi, guys, I would appreciate some guidance on Vray lighting and camera

I was hoping someone could explain the best way to take a scene to a basic default and then work the lighting/camera to realistic camera settings, as in what settings should be adjusted first and so on

the kind of answer I'm looking for is like: take the exposure, f-number, shutter, the sun etc.. all to 100 to start off with a neutral scene, and then kick off with exposure first and (then this then that) to get to a final realistic lighting.

something along the lines of that.hearing a few different ways people progress their scenes would be helpful.

thanks guys

I start almost every scene by setting up a Daylight System that uses a Vray Sun and Sky. I set the time of day and then the location to my project.

Most scenes are best lit by natural lighting so I believe this a good start and at the very least, you are ensuring that a realistic sense of scale is being used in your lighting and camera because the Vray Sun and Sky are physically based (at least proximally).

From here I set some basic camera settings... Shutter is set to 125/Seconds and ISO set to 100. These are basic bright and no blur settings and void any use of camera FX that are not on by default anyway. I then use the F-Number only to gain a proper exposure using the normalized F-Stop chart you can find anywhere online for whole/half/third/and quarter stops.

Doing this means that you can math your way brighter and darker and towards FX and away from them because they all balance to a known EV value that can be re-jiggered for more DOF or Motion Blur etc.

I also un-tick Force Clamping in the VFB to better understand where the exposure is peaking or not.

After this is set I start to place artificial lights, but only where necessary. Many images will not need them and the darkness is able to be painted around, but if you do then once an exposure in the camera is set to the Environment you can place these intelligently.

For artificial lights I use the Luminosity mode. This is a bit strange for most, but I believe fully in it as this breaks any relationship between size and shape of the light to the power/intensity of it. This allows you more control of your lights and in a lot of scenarios it allows you to extend the use of instanced lights by scaling and the like. I also tend towards using Kelvins for the color/temp of the artificial lights (because I often end up with an HDRI that shange my white balance away from 6500) and I always give my lights a directional value to get better bounce light and a better shape.

From here you are set and in control of the variables. Artificial lights can be swapped for IES if you want and the ENV can be swapped for an HDRI because you now have a camera that is seeing light in real values. Once you have a camera that captures the basic setup properly you should leave that alone and then use the intensity of your refined lighting (HDRI and IES if using) through their own parameter values. Leave your camera alone except where absolutely necessary.

With HDRI's and really any lighting, White Balance on the camera can be employed to color your images to your own desire.

Whether you agree with me or not, lighting and cameras are about locking down variables so that you can make intelligent decisions about your art. I may have a technical approach, but it gives me the most artistic freedom as I can do what I want rather than constantly react to what I last changed. I try to and I think everyone should, render with the fewest lights necessary. Too much light in a scene can kill your contrast and ultimately make your images read flat/fake.

I hope this helps. You should also check out this for lighting as it is the most well rounded approach I have ever encountered albeit a bit different than what I have outlined. Though, not altogether that far off: http://www.learnvray.com/features/english.php

I'll give it a shot when I get home

thank you for the detailed response, I'm finding my renders looking a bit weird and I'm always struggling to balance a really bright HDRI and dark model anytime I adjust something and render I end up ruining something else in the scene, either sun to strong camera darkens different areas sun to exposed

I'll try your approach and let you know how I go

Thanks