Interior Daylight with Openings blocked

[chasehearn]

I'm having the hardest time figuring out how to set this rendering up. I'm trying to do a simple daylight render. The 1st image shows where the light is coming in and the 2nd images is exactly the same except I have added a hanging ceiling. Whenever I add that ceiling the render gets all greyed out and light starts to leak around the acoustical shelf around the perimeter. Also the lighting gets really harsh at the top along the walls.

 

I basically want to show light coming from the top spilling along the sides of the walls past the hanging ceiling and then being stopped at the acoustical shelf with the walls being dark beneath the acoustical shelf. I hope that makes sense.

 

My settings are pretty basic right now using Vray Sun with vray camera and exposure.

 

Is there a better way to set this up?

 

Thank you for any help.

 

 

[Ismael]

Is it something like this you want?

[chasehearn]

Yeah, something similar to that.

 

All the interior daylighting tutorials I find always have a windows opening directly into the space, but I'm looking more for indirectly illuminating the space.

[Ismael]

Yes, that setup is for indirect illumination. The attached I got by using high settings in both Irradiance and LC. If settings are not high, it may be quite difficult lighting the place and specially around the stage area.

 

[chasehearn]

Thank you ishmael! That is a huge help, but im still not quite getting it like you did. If its not too much trouble, would you be able to post screens of the render settings you used in the image you posted?

 

I think i have just messed with too many variables and am a complete noob at this kind of lighting.

 

Thank you again.

[Ismael]

Lots of sampling! No Sun or Skylight.

Edited January 1, 2013 by Ismael
adding

[chasehearn]

Thank you once again Ishmael. I tried to make my settings just like yours, but still getting a very low contrast rendering. I've never had this much trouble with lighting before which is frustrating.

 

I don't want to ask for more of your time, but if you have a quick moment maybe you can glance at my file and see if you spot what I'm doing wrong.

 

My file can be downloaded from my dropbox here.

 

Thank you so much!

 

[cg_Butler]

I think you should turn off exposure control in the environment and change the camera settings to the following. White balance neutral. Turn off vignette and change your iso to 200. I didn't change aynthing else, apart from reducing all your settings a bit and i got this.

 

It's a good base for you to work from.