Wierd shadow with distant lights.

Steel Rat

Hello All,

Whenever I use a distant light in a scene, I get a weird rectangular shadow, even though there is nothing between the light and the subject. I've attached a sample.

 

Richard Haseltine

Do you have a local light, sucxh as a Spot Light, with a defined shape? If so that will cast a shadow - you mght try turning Render Emitter off if so, though I can't recall if that will work for this.

Steel Rat

Thanks for the reply, Richard. 

The only other lights were mesh lights inside a structure in front of the figure in the image, so away from the camera and the distant light. No objects between the distant light and the subject at all. I've seen it in other renders with distant lights as well. Not all the time, and sometimes the scene is too busy to notice.

Steel Rat

I've figured out what causes this. If the current camera has the headlamp on, it's that exact little rectangle. Not sure why it shows up as a shadow sometimes. If the headlamp has a negative intensity, it will come out as a shadow.

Anyway, now that I know what it is, I can work around it.

It also depends on the glossiness of the receiving object. Glossy, it will show much more than non-glossy.