Exposure value for indoor scene with no windows (using mental ray)

[shineugene]

Hello

 

 

I am trying to render an indoor scene that has no windows and the door is closed.

Allthough it is daylight outside, no light can come in. I am going to put two fluorescent lights on the ceilings. I am new to 3ds max and I don't know how to set the exposure and

light settings right.

 

 

My questions are two fold

1) What should I set for exposure value taking into consideration the lights?

 

2) What value should I set for the intensity (cd or lm) of the fluorescent lights?

 

 

I would greatly appreciate your help on this.

[Virgil Johnson]

Maybe the second part of this might be of some help.

 

http://tutorials.render-test.com/overall_light_vid.html

[Nicolai Bongard]

If you have no lighting that comes from the outside, it does not really matter what values you use, unless you want realistic in camera depth of field or some other effect like that. If that is desireable, just set your camera values to something that would make sense for an interior shot and adjust the lights to whatever looks good.

[shineugene]

That's what I figured with EV of around 7, this would be like a night scene.

Thank you.

[notamondayfan]

I personally don't worry about real world values, balance and contrast is much more important, and even if the room has 2 ceiling lights doesn't mean your CGI should be lit that way.

Do you think a professional photographer would just turn on the lights and shoot? Of course not, they'd use a whole bunch of lights, reflectors, etc, and even then may take multiple shots at different exposures to create a fantastic end image, so why would CGI be any different?

 

That's not a dig by the way, just an example to hopefully make you think a bit less literally, and slightly more artistically.

 

Dean

[emiliolopez1]

Hello

 

 

I am trying to render an indoor scene that has no windows and the door is closed.

Allthough it is daylight outside, no light can come in. I am going to put two fluorescent lights on the ceilings. I am new to 3ds max and I don't know how to set the exposure and

light settings right.

 

 

My questions are two fold

1) What should I set for exposure value taking into consideration the lights?

 

2) What value should I set for the intensity (cd or lm) of the fluorescent lights?

 

 

I would greatly appreciate your help on this.

 

Im not photographer, but i learned the basics of photography searching on the internet and experimenting with a reflex camera experimenting shutter speeed, lens aperture, f number, ISO speed, and how these variables affects how the final photograph. The same goes with illumination, learning little by little over the years. BUT i dont recall all of this by memory, so what i do when i want to refresh my mind and search for a starting point in camera/illumination settings, i navigate Flickr looking for a photo that inspires me and also has a similar scene lightning condition that im planning to achieve, and look for the f number, shutter speed and ISO speed of the photo posted there. Take this random pic for example: