Do you use skylight (GI) for interior lighting?

[johnharper1]

I know it's used a lot for exterior but what about studio lighting like producing a product shot on a white background, or an interior scene that has no windows. My guess is yes it should be used perhaps with an HDRI dome light on a low setting like 0.2 multiplier, but I didn't know if that was proper or not. Can someone give me a bit of guidance here?

[christofferthulin]

Don't know if I understand you correctly but if you want to produce photorealistic images you must of course render with GI on. The light source is a matter of choice and often it's best to use what you would use in real life. If you are rendering an interior scene and there is a window there should be some kind of skylight yes. If there is no window, it should not.

 

Thats my opinion.

[johnharper1]

Thank you. Yes, I was asking specifically about the skylight. I know the Indirect Illumination GI option should be ON which bounces the light from the existing lights in the scene, but a skylight whether it is the GI Environment (skylight) override or an HDRI put on a vray dome light is the one I was wondering if it should add to a studio lighting setup. I think you answered my question, which is No unless the artist has a reason for it in which case would probably dictate a very low setting.

[christofferthulin]

Yes I see. Well, there are some free studio HDRI's which perhaps would work as an environment light, if it's the studio light you're looking for. But if it's just an interior scene with no windows I would let the modeled geometry work as the environment alone. Glad I could help.