Problem with low contrast in renders

[NilsFolke]

Hey guys!

 

Im having a major issue with Maxwell 2. All my renders look a bit washed out. Its like there is a grayish layer on top of them. Contrast is low and colors are pale. I can somewhat resolve this in Photoshop but there is gotta be something Im doing wrong that causes this. However I never did experienced this problem in the first version of Maxwell. The funny thing is that the preview window shows a great looking image in terms of color and contrast.

 

Ive searched several forums and havenot found any topic similar. Ive done a lot of test with both the Rhino plug and the studio version of Maxwell to try out different theories but all renders end up more or less washed out.

 

Anyone that has an idea of what could be causing this? Or how do you go about to get rich contrast in your renders?

 

Thx,

Nils

[Jeff Mottle]

Sounds like a gamma issue?

[NilsFolke]

Jeff thanks alot man! You saved my day! I had totally missed the tone mapping field. Silly since I had it right in front of me! As soon as I turned the gamma down to one the renders came out great! Is a value of one low to run at? Just curious since it is the lowest value possible. Great community by the way!

[Jeff Mottle]

Glad that helped. You'll want to do some research on Linear workflow (LWF) as you generally don't use 1.0, but in the interim if that works go for it.

[Brodie Geers]

Maxwell takes whatever you give it (textures or colors) and applies the inverse gamma to it internally and then upon export reapplies the gamma you choose (2.2 by default). So essentially, Maxwell works in LWF for you without special settings and having to fret over gamma and such (I'm not sure I understand why all other rendering engines don't work the same).

 

So if you're importing normal textures (2.2 gamma) and picking colors from your screen (2.2 gamma) and then finding you like to export from Maxwell at 1.0 gamma, there's something wrong there. Perhaps you could post some images and maybe some render settings (particularly lighting settings).

 

-Brodie

Edited March 7, 2011 by brodie_geers

[NilsFolke]

Thanks guys for the head sup and info on LWF! Im pretty new to this so I really appreciate all the help. However Im starting to think that my problem instead has something to do with how I set up my lightning in the scene. I did my first interior scene in a long time and it came out great at 2.2 gamma. But mostly I do renders of products in front of a simple white backdrop and it´s also in those I experience this wash out look. You can see it somewhat in this print screen. The red is RGB(255,0,0) and the black (0,0,0). I think they should come off more like the preview. The scene is lit by and HDR of white squares (Intensity set to 20) and a plane emitter. [ATTACH=CONFIG]41781[/ATTACH]

 

If there´s someone else than me that´s new to LWF and gamma here´s a simple and great explanation of by a Matt Gromer.

http://www.ronenbekerman.com/linear-workflow-made-simple/

 

If there´s someone else than me that´s new to LWF and gamma here´s a simple and great explanation of by a Matt Gromer.

http://www.ronenbekerman.com/linear-workflow-made-simple/

[Brodie Geers]

I see now. I think I know what your issue is. There was a problem with one of the plugins awhile back where scattering was turned on by default. You'll notice that your scattering is set to 50%. Check that box and slide it down to 0% and you'll be in business. And find out where that setting is in your plugin and be sure to change it there.

 

The reason your FIRE preview looks ok is because it doesn't apply those Simulens effects.

 

-Brodie

[NilsFolke]

Brodie, youre the man!! Thank you so much! Guess it´s time for me to update the plugin! Big up!