exposure controls

[SgWRX]

not sure if this is max specific or mentalray specific but there is something called "image control" when using mr photographic exposure control or physical camera exposure control. it's highlights/midtones/shadows and a curve box for illustration purposes.

 

lately i've been thinking i'd rather control my shadows and highlights in post processing rather than using these image control settings.

 

i can't seem to get a strait curve in the curve box illustration. my thoughts are that highlights=0.0 midtones=1.0 and shadows=0.0 would give me what i want, but just eyeballing it, midtones=0.9 seems better.

 

i do have gamma correction enabled in max and all that, but i've always been suspect of that because in the little gamma correction box they display, my middle square doesn't blend in unless i set a gamma of 1.88 whereas 2.2 is what the desired target is, but then the middle square is way out of wack (brighter). this may be that my monitor is calibrated and profiled to 2.2 so max might be double-gamma-ing.

 

anyway, seems to me that if i could get some type of flat linear output then in post i could control highlights and shadows better.

 

saving an image in exr format should help the process too. however when i open the image in photoshop i'm asked to assign a profile, can't get away with not assigning one, and i could certainly loose data by using a smaller profile such as srgb so this may all be pointless anyway but still, i could get more control than i have now without worrying about crushing the shaodws too much or burning out the highlights too much.

 

any thoughts?

 

thanks!

[Francisco Penaloza]

if you are saving at 32 bits, you should not worry about it. You get enough dynamic range to adjust in pots, so just leave it as is.

 

That curve I believe it is not linear, I think it come from back a few years so it should be a logarithmic. I think.

it will always curve a little, and don't get straight with the controls we are given. you can make it about straight but it clips in the edges.

 

If you are saving to 8 bith depth, well then you may want to play a little more with those controls, the major effect you should look for is over bright areas. But I will totally recommend to at least save in 16 bits. You could do PNG or HDRI format too.

 

Regarding Photoshop, I never get that profile window. Everything is default sRGB, I always use EXR format, never been ask for profile.

Did you changed something?? did you calibrate your monitor and assign a custom profile?

 

Unless you are working on video-3d matching or with different video formats all these differences are minimal for Arch Viz eyes.

nowadays everything default, should work fine. Just click render and save on 16 or 32 bits, you'll get enough light info to fill all your crazy adjustments desires

[SgWRX]

yeah, the curve image control has been in as long as i can remember (max 5). but it was always goofy to me because i've been so used to tone curves in photography. but yeah i played around with it and can get it somewhat flat, but can also adjust it to give more of a contrast look to renders which might work OK for me, but it's still easier to do it in photoshop or after effects.

 

16bit tiff's give me pretty much what i'm looking for, i keep forgeting about saving in that format. otherwise yeah, 32bit exr is a help.

 

in photoshop i always have it set as sRGB default working space, then warn me when i open images without profiles or mis-matched (to my default working space) profiles. this comes in handy when we get photos from out-sourced photographers who send us files in "nikon rgb" or some other color space. it also allows me to load up rendered images and assign my custom monitor profile and then convert to working space. this gives me the closest look to what i see in the rendered frame window as max doesn't read monitor profiles. it's "close to srgb" but since i have a custom profile for the monitor, they looked washed out a bit.

 

 

Unless you are working on video-3d matching or with different video formats all these differences are minimal for Arch Viz eyes.

nowadays everything default, should work fine. Just click render and save on 16 or 32 bits, you'll get enough light info to fill all your crazy adjustments desires

 

i get all sorts of complaints that "it's the wrong color brown, it'd be more redish-brown", or "it wouldn't look like that" from designers at work. even to the point where i have to desaturate blue sky because it makes the white wall next to the window look blue... so i try to find ways to make work flow easier and quicker

[Francisco Penaloza]

i get all sorts of complaints that "it's the wrong color brown, it'd be more redish-brown", or "it wouldn't look like that" from designers at work. even to the point where i have to desaturate blue sky because it makes the white wall next to the window look blue... so i try to find ways to make work flow easier and quicker

 

Good luck with that one, I receive same comments all the time, but after fussing so much with calibrating my monitor and profiling, I find out if I leave everything as default, the colors are closer to what other people has in their monitors.

my company still has very old monitors around, so color arguments are constant unless we all calibrate our monitors (more than 400), those comment will never finish.

and after that we have to deal with Clients monitor differences.

The only thing we have nailed is from screen to the printer. But the printed is profiled to our monitor, not the other way around.

[SgWRX]

thanks. glad i'm not the only one! so for two projects i printed out my renders on my home printer (epson 3880) because our work printers suck. i'm definitely not the best render artist but geez, there comes a point where i put something together that i know will "wow" a client. ugh. like i said, glad i'm not the only one...