How to get the detailed monochrome renders like on shop previews?

thekiwiwhoflew

Hello everybody! I've been struggling with this for the past couple of days and was wondering if anyone might be able to help me out. 

How can I get a detailed but monochromatic and evenly lit render like what you find in store previews?

My attempts so far have included transforming everything into the Clay Shader - Porcelain or Grey (https://www.daz3d.com/clay-style-shaders-for-iray), then various itirations of the Ghost Light (https://www.daz3d.com/iray-ghost-light-kit) - (natural light, daylight, all the luminescence) then rendering in Iray.

But what ends up happening is that the light simply drowns everything out, or the shadows swallow up the details. Even if I tried making the light source further away or futzing with the light itensity, the result is the same. 

Any ideas?

Some gorgeous examples of what I'm trying to achieve:

 

nemesis10

I did a quick render....  I would suggest using a good HDRI as the light source, choose a good matte finish, the ghost light is a nice touch but lower the light intensity so that it is a tiny bit darker than you want, place the Ghost light so the light is a fill, and render with the saturation set to zero.  I tried something simpler with a simple grey texture, a grey HDRI, and the IDL Master light:

 

nemesis10

So, I tried the instructions I gave you and made the clay color a dark grey; hopefully this closer to what you wanted: