Rendering evening exterior, settings of interior lights

[torstenmiddelkoop]

Hi guys,

 

I have some difficulties rendering an evening exterior scene. I use an HDRi for lighting, and i use a couple of spherelights (300mm) to light the interior. No I am wondering what are normal values for the Luminous power of the lights? I want the scene to be as physically correct as possible.

 

My reference is an evening image of the Icelandic House made by Juraj Talcik First image). In the attached file i have set the spherelights to 100000 lm. Still they are not very visible. I can crank op the default multiplier untill they are visible, or i can turn of the decay. But as i said i want the scene to be physically correct as much as possible.

 

What settings do you guys use in this particular situation?

[Devin Johnston]

It's been my experience that regular settings for lights never work the way there supposed to, I always end up cranking them to absurd levels in order to get them to show up. It has a lot to do with you camera exposure settings, if you can get them balanced correctly then your lights should show up but that will mean adjusting your HDRI as well and potentially your materials. In the end it's easier to just turn up the lights and leave everything else the way you had it, the lights still operate the way they should their values are just higher.

[torstenmiddelkoop]

Thanks Devin,

 

Yes this has been my approach as well. Good to know this is the way to go :-)

[Ernest Burden III]

Also do not assume your reference image is a single exposure. Photographers have Photoshop, too.

[torstenmiddelkoop]

Thats true :-)

 

Btw the reference is a render by Juraj Talcik.

[Francisco Penaloza]

I would not recommend to use sphere light as a main source of light, You should try to use IES lights or V Ray lights planes, then use the sphere as accent lights. You could also use typical omni lights, with VRay shadows activated and decay too.

 

Also your camera exposure do not seems right, I would recommend to use a neutral white balance, a lower f-stop, something like 6 or under usually work fine at dusk shots. and reduce your speed, to 80 or lower depending of your F stop.

as mentioned above you should try to get a balanced image, and then take it further in Photoshop or any photo editing software.