Iray Lighting Problems

melanie

I've been trying to get a dramatic effect on a closeup portrait with deep shadow on one side and lighted only on one side. I've tried several of the light sets that I've bought here at DAZ, but none of them seem to work as I would like them to. When I render, it seems to come out with the default lighting, no deep shadow, and I'm getting a bit frustrated. What am I doing wrong? I've tried turning off the headlamp, but still no luck. Is there something I'm not grasping about iray lighting. I've been using DAZ Studio for several years, and it's still a learning process. I guess we never stop learning.

Are there some lighting secrets I need to know to get what I'm trying to achieve?

frank0314

You need to do a custom light set. Just include one spotlight and adjust your setting to your liking.

nonesuch00

I own 3 portrait styles light sets from DAZ Store but J Cade's Painter's Lights is my favorite.

https://www.daz3d.com/painter-s-lights

And if you want free & easy then HRDIHaven has a bunch of free ones. The ones that you want to create dramatic shadows are the sunrise, sunset, and nighttime HRDIs from the HRDIHaven.com site:

https://hdrihaven.com/bundle.php?b=free_bundle (Preller Drive, Dry Field, Lenong 2). 

What you do is use them for light but leave Dome Render turned off. You can also render the Dome (HRDI will be the background) but you need to adjust the Gausian Filter upwards in number and the Environment Light Blur turn on and adjust so that the HRDI and models from DAZ look like that are together.

 

melanie

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll check into those. I wonder why the ones I bought here at DAZ don't work. Or am I just not using them correctly? They're supposed to be iray lights and the product page shows the kind of light and shadow that I want. The one that has the kind of light/shadow I'm trying to get is the Hi-Drama Iray Lights.
https://www.daz3d.com/hi-drama-iray-lights

Is there something I need to do to get them to look like these? It just renders as if it's the default lights.

kentphoto

One more thing...go to Render Settings-Editor Tab-and down to Enviroment.  Under Enviroment Mode you might see Dome and Scene.  Click and set it to Scene Only.  Then use your spotlight on one side or the other for that dramatic effect.  Let me know if that helps.

Kent

Mattymanx

Both Lyoness and DimentionTheory have lights sets for iray that work really well.

 

https://www.daz3d.com/lyoness

https://www.daz3d.com/dimensiontheory

 

I used DimensionTheory's lights on my promos for my new braces set here  - https://www.daz3d.com/conforming-braces-for-genesis-3

And I have used Lyoness' light sets for my own artwork here - https://www.daz3d.com/gallery/images/380656/ - https://www.daz3d.com/gallery/images/376521/ - https://www.daz3d.com/gallery/images/364991/

 

JamesJAB

A few tips to keep in mind when going for dramatic lighting:

1. Go into your Render Settings -> Tone Mapping
2. Set your Gamma to 1.00 (This will give you a much wider dark vs. light range in your image)
3. Set your F/Stop to 2.00
4. Set your Shutter Speed (1/x) to around 600

Now you can turn on your Iray preview and tweak the settings to your liking.

Shutter Speed is the one you want to mess with.

• Smaller number will lighten the scene
• Larger number will darken the scene

For final tweaking, you can play with Crush Blacks, Burn Highlights, and Saturation.

• Crush Blacks : Higher numbers will darken the shadowed areas without effecting the rest of the image
• Burn Highlights : Higher numbers will lighten the light areas without effecting the rest of the image
• Saturation : Hugher numbers will make your colors more vibrant

Hope this helps.

Here are a few examples of what I'm talking about. (Gamma 2.20 is the Default setting)
The left is the raw render @ 2.20 Gamma - The middle was after post-processing in Photoshop - The right is a raw render @ 1.00 Gamma
 

SimonJM

Don't forget to have the headlamp on the camera you are using for rendering turned off.