The old dark image problem is back

[Greg Law]

I'm having a problem with my images coming out to dark again. I sorted this out but suddenly it is back.

I'm using the Daylight lighting as it is an external image .My gamma is set at 1 input and 2.2 out put. Environment is set to 15.

When I set it to 2.2 input and 2.2 out put it is even darker. I had this problem a while ago and sorted it by setting up the gamma as above and all was well for a few weeks now it is all gone bad again. Any ideas has happened?

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

I am guessing this is Mental Ray, and by environment you mean Exposure Value?

 

The 2.2 input gamma is correct if you are working in a 2.2 corrected environment. See attached image for settings. As for the 15, forget it. MR defaults seem to be set for a non corrected environment. Set them yourself instead. Try using a 13.6 or so for a starting point. I actually like using the shutter speed and f-stop for adjusting exposure, but that is me.

[cjjat puresilica]

I have found that I have to set the environment exposure setting often as low as 8.7 as a starting point or I get total blackness.

 

CJJ

[Greg Law]

Thanks this is a great help. I will work on that.

One thing I'm wondering is can you change the file type in the page setup render section. At the moment it only allows Tif.

I had a strange thing happen with this dark image issue. When I did a normal render using a JPG image file everything worked fine. Then when I did a Tif image after the JPG one it came out correctly. All very odd.

[cjjat puresilica]

Dear Seacondor,

 

If you would like to send me your saved *.rps preset file and your max file I would willingly have a look at it for you. I would not need your materials to check your settings.

 

My email address is friv@puresilica.com.

 

Regards,

 

cjj

[dmtr]

I am guessing this is Mental Ray, and by environment you mean Exposure Value?

 

The 2.2 input gamma is correct if you are working in a 2.2 corrected environment. See attached image for settings. As for the 15, forget it. MR defaults seem to be set for a non corrected environment. Set them yourself instead. Try using a 13.6 or so for a starting point. I actually like using the shutter speed and f-stop for adjusting exposure, but that is me.

 

Hi guys, I have the same problem and was looking for similar posts on the forum. I applied gamma as your screenshot shows above(2.2) , but when I open jpg outside max its dark. Any ideas how can I fix it?

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

That setup is for a floating point format. If you want to right to a format like jpg, you need your output set to 2.2.

 

Though... Don't write to a jpeg out of Max. Write to a TIF, PNG, TGA, nearly anything besides a jpeg.

[cjjat puresilica]

Have you tried, adjusting the background colour and the level setting within the Exposure Control settings under the environment tab? I too would never save to a jpg format. For me it's the end of the road setting, after one has done all the image manipulating in PhotoShop. I too would prefer to save to tif format as it holds far more useful data than jpg especially if you want to save to Genuine Fractals to blow up your image without loosing sharpness.

 

Regards,

 

Christopher

[cjjat puresilica]

Sorry I did not mean 'background colour' I meant 'global lighting.' When I have been suffering with total blackouts I have set the global lighting colour as low as 14.14.14 and the level as low as .1. Then added my lighting so I can see the effect it is having. I then lift the setting up until I achieve the quick render that looks OK. I know I am new to this subject and don't wish to try to teach anyone how to suck eggs but have you tried using the freebie bolt on quick render aid ' Vray Quick Presets v0.3.' I have found it a real help being able to do a quick render in 35 seconds that would normally take 10 / 20 minutes to do a 3dsmax quick render F9.

[dmtr]

Though... Don't write to a jpeg out of Max. Write to a TIF, PNG, TGA, nearly anything besides a jpeg.

 

The problem is even if I save as TGA or TIFF, it's still darker when I open it in photoshop than in render windon in max. So I reset gamma to default and use just exposure contol. Please advise which workflow is preffered.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

Though... Don't write to a jpeg out of Max. Write to a TIF, PNG, TGA, nearly anything besides a jpeg.

 

The problem is even if I save as TGA or TIFF, it's still darker when I open it in photoshop than in render windon in max. So I reset gamma to default and use just exposure contol. Please advise which workflow is preffered.

 

Any non floating point format will need the gamma burned into the image, hence you will need to set your gamma output to 2.2, not 1.0.

[dmtr]

Any non floating point format will need the gamma burned into the image, hence you will need to set your gamma output to 2.2, not 1.0.

 

Cool, thank you. I guess I need do some homework about floating point format.