Realistic Lighting

[Dave Buckley]

Any tips or critiques welcome??? WIP

[STRAT]

the lighting is very flat. it makes the front of the shelves look flat and brightly painted, and the backs of the shelves inside look dull self illuminted. the hardness and lighting of the blanket is most offputting too. it looks super-imposed as the lighting doesn't match.

 

i think allot of the problems here is lack of soft shadowing. the AO effect. nothing is 'connected' to the other.

[Dave Buckley]

cheers but have u got any tips on how to correct it, i understand what your saying but what should i do to achieve that. I'm using max 9 and mental ray 3.5 btw. appreciate the help. that render is simply one free area light at the window, FG and logarithmic exposure control

[Tommy L]

I would disagree with Strat. I think the lighting here is great. The lack of depth in soem of the elemnts that makes them feel disconnected is more down to composition than technical lighting issues. I think you've set up a physically correct solution for that scenario, question is, would you use that scenario to portray something in a theatric sense? You could ask yourself what is your goal with the lighting, other than realism.

[Dave Buckley]

thanks for the comments, the aim of the render will eventually be focused around the shelves, each shelf is goin to have a different pair of bright red shoes on it, i was inspired by an image i saw in a female friends book about shoes (not too sure why i was looking through it : p ) really i wanted the lighting levels to look quite dull to make the red shoes stand out and really become th focus of the scene (when i eventually get them in there). In the inspiring picture i guess you could say that room looked quite sad/cold/neglected to bring warmth to the shoes, showing the pride of the owner, hard to explain i guess

[JamesTaylor]

how about scanning the image that inspired you and posting that too so we see where your coming from in terms of what your trying to achieve.

 

i'm thinking adding back lighting to the shoes could be an interesting way to help the shoes stand out...???

[Tommy L]

Ill second that, sounds like an interesting project, post the original!