How to have light bouncing from ground

Illidanstorm

I've noticed that when I put a default plane on the ground the light seems to bounce back from that, which is what I want.

I don't want however to have a white plane in my scene as a ground.

So is there a way to make the light bounce back from the ground without this white plane visible there?

BeeMKay

Depends on what type of ground you intend to use. Or is the scene supposed to be ground-less?

Illidanstorm

Grounds from normal environments like stonemamson stuff or interiors 

BeeMKay

Normally, a surface reflects light, depending on its settings and colour. The lighter the colour, the more reflection you get. Hence, your white ground reflects a lot of light.

A darker surface of course refelcts, by default, less light and only darker light colours. An option is to add some extra light posed in an angle that will make it bounce back on the figure. you could increase reflectivity of the surface, too.

Can you give me an example what you are aiming for in your render?

These two articles explain very well the basics of lighting in general, but of course not DAZ-specific:

• http://www.itchy-animation.co.uk/tutorials/light03.htm
• http://www.amaanakram.com/lightingT/part1.htm

Illidanstorm

I was kinda looking for something like ghost lights but instead of the surface lighting the scene it just reflects the lighting while invisible. 

Here is a strong hdri light coming from the left 

Here with a plane making the shadow softer

Having something like this would be increadible useful especially since I light my scenes only with hdris usually.
If she wore a hat for example you could position a plane below it to have light bounce off it to make the face brighter.
 

 

Richard Haseltine

You could always use a ghost light - a plane almost but not quite transparent set as a low strength emitter. I don'tt hink there's a way to have light bounce off an invisible plane, unless it could be done via a Light path Expressions using Canvasses (Advanced tab of Render Settings).

Ivy

Iray is great for caustics is your using transparences maps like Richard said. , So unless is a water on the ground like a puddle or glass reflection  is hard to get light bounce in iray. I usually end up doing it in post work. or some kind of light prop llike epic godrays or dynmaic lensflare props

But if your using 3Delight , its easy to achieve light bouse using UE2 and even customize the bounce  by adding in specular light source.  But i have not been able to copy the same results in iray