Shadow Positions?

[JamesTaylor]

i always seem to have an issue when it comes to placing a sun light to produce the shadows in scene. i feel the shadows are key to defining the building mass / shape along with making an interesting composition of a scene when it comes to rendering images.

 

so, come on spill your secrets!............do you tend to use rules of thumb for positioning the shadow casting light? maybe you generally locate it in a relative position to your camera, or maybe you tend to go for a high midday type position almost directly over head.

 

When you are position the light what are you tring to achieve? general shadows cast from as much geometry as poss or a large difference from dark areas to directly lit areas?

[edub]

I usually try to match the shadows to those on a photograph of the site - especially if I'm doing perpsective match work.

 

If I'm just making up the sun angle, I guess I go with a 30-60 angle for exteriors, as a rule-of-thumb, so as to not get evenly lit sides at a corner (if you use 45-45).

 

Interiors I just eyeball, to get a good throw of light into the room - but again, depending on what you're using as a backdrop (from photograph), the cues should already be there for you to match.

 

No secrets, really - just rules of thumb and common sense. I'm sure there's all kinds of tricks to get that extra piff...

[John Dollus]

For artistic (as opposed to architecturally accurate) exterior renderings, I usually move the main light around a lot to highlight the features. I never place the light at the same angle as the camera and usually switch to a viewport from the light source point of view until the shadow angles fall where I want them.

 

For interiors, I always light with artificial light first and add the exterior component last for the extra punch but that probably has more to do with my enthusiuasm for reflected ceiling plans and photometrics! I know, I need professional help.

 

Oh, and I never use a white light source and always tint it (see below)

 

 

Magic Hour / Golden Hour - i.e. "Its still not dark enough, give it 5 minutes and we'll be in the magic hour." - More like 30 minutes than an hour this is around sunset and sunrise where the lighting conditions change dramatically in a short space of time. The colour temperature of the light falls from 5100K to 3100K producing a golden-orange colour - great for those romantic scenes on verandas. At the latter part of the hour the sky gets bluer, allowing you to shoot night scenes when there is still light around. Magic hour shoots require careful planning as the light falls quickly and there's not a lot of time. For some stunning magic hour cinematography take a look at Terence Malick's 'Days of Heaven'.

 

-from http://www.exposure.co.uk/eejit/lingo/index.html