using gamma 1.0 for dark interior shot

[stayinwonderland]

Been toying with the idea of using this (linear workflow).

 

So I do a render using vray VFB and get the dark image (with the sRGB button no pressed) and it looks dark, which is fine, but it also looks really burnt. I don't mean the lights are too blown out, I mean like there's a strong colour burn effect, with high contrast and an overall orange hue to the scene.

 

Is this normal?

[dhammikaherath]

You can always use PS Shadows/Highlights

[stayinwonderland]

Please, no answers like "just fix it in photoshop".

 

Here is my regular render where the light levels are high enough to keep the noise at bay (when my settings are super high) but a little too light to create a nice dark/moody shot:

 

 

and this is the same image with linear 1.0 switched on:

 

 

As you can see, it has a fair bit of potential in terms of a darker interior, but it's a little too dark and has a very burnt feel to it. So I need some middle ground. Don't know whether you're supposed to increase lighting significantly when using linear? or adjust the gamma to something higher than 1.0? or use the VFB colour correction settings (but again, like "just fix it in post" this just stretches the pixels rather than brightening them I feel and I then get the lights blowing up).

 

Getting my workflow from this tutorial:

 

http://www.davidfleet.com/tutorials/linear-workflow

[dhammikaherath]

Normally I set my Gamma 2.2 and try to balance it by adjusting Dark & Bright multiplier.

How many LC Subdivs and Passes you are using right now?

[stayinwonderland]

Hmmm, I think the answer lies in this video somewhere...

 

[Corey Beaulieu]

Are you viewing the saved result?

 

This isn't normal, as you've suspected, but i would try to manually save it as Override 1.0 and Override 2.2. The issue is likely in the way the image is being saved regardless of how it looks in the VFB.

 

If you set your system to be 2.2 everywhere, input, ouput, gamma, and lut; then you set the color mapping to Linear Dk Mult 1.0 Bright Mult 1.0 and the gamma to 2.2. Tick the Sub-pixel mapping and clamping if you like and then affect background and dont affect colors. When you render save it as system default unless you are saving in 32 bit is which case you should override 1.0.

 

I have to say though, I typically like Reinhardt for interiors.

[stayinwonderland]

Hmm, I've been round the houses on this, looking at the above video and then experimenting with exponential/linear and tweaking the brightness/dark multiplier.

 

I found working in linear was weird because, even though I saved the image as open EXR and output was 1.0 and sRGB was unchecked, it still saved as a really super bright image - this I could solve by halving the gamma in photoshop, but I found I got a less complicated and comparable result with exponential and bringing down the dark multiplier to 0.8

 

I could then tweak in post rather than having to do anything dramatic with gamma. Not high quality render settings but came up with this:

 

 

What do you guys think of the light levels/contrast? It's not finished, there's still a few more lights that the client wants me to put in, but I just mean overall.

 

Thanks for all the suggestions!

[Corey Beaulieu]

I like the spots, generally speaking, but I think it needs a stronger GI/Fill light. I don't know if the move is to lower F on the camera and reduce the spots intensity or just push the GI override up to like 5.0 or something, but the contrast you are getting is the kind I prefer to control in post.

[stayinwonderland]

Remind me what GI override is? It's probably something obvious but when I asked google to remind me it just came up with unrelated stuff, like material override. Cheers.

[Corey Beaulieu]

Your GI is your sky so whatever you are using for your sky. I assumed that you are using a GI Override in your Environment Rollout, the one either above or below your Color Mapping settings. You could also have it in the environment menu (8) or just generally in a dome light of some sort.

[stayinwonderland]

Oh right. No it's a pretty much fully interior shot. I have one plane light behind the camera that's filling the space a tad but only lightly.

 

I totally know what GI override is now, used it dozens of times. Knew it would come back to me. Don't think it will help here though.