Iray lights troubble

tombraider4ever

I am a beginner at Daz 3D and I find lighting (and render settings ) extremly difficult, so I wonder if someone can recommend me a set of iray lights (with backgrounds) and included rendersettings, like one or a few click presets.

As easy to use as possible, I will mostly make portraits, full figure or from the thigh and up. I have searched a lot to find an easy set, and I have read about HDR lights but I don't know what it is. Is it difficult?

I would be really grateful for some assistance in finding this, beacuse I love Daz 3D but I find it very difficult to use the lights. I know I should be learning to set it up myself, but when I try I never get the effect I want, and I am

not having fun, it's just frustraiting. 

Knittingmommy

I can understand that exactly.  Lighting is not my favorite part of this hobby.  I learned most of my lighting skills by tearing apart others sets to see how they work.  While I can now do better at lighting, I still use sets I've purchased before attempting some of my own lighting.  For paid products, I highly recommend almost any light set from InaneGlory and DestinysGarden and light sets from ForbiddenWhispers and DimensionTheory.

InaneGlory's Photo Studio - Point and Shoot Iray is a great set.  I do recommend reading the instructions, but it is fairly simple to use.  There is a reason why she calls it point and shoot.  It was my go to product until I got IDG Portrait Studio, but I still use it for a lot of renders.

IDG Portrait Studio is a great set and you also get the actual studio in case you want a render of a photo shoot which I thought was a brilliant idea or you can keep the lights out of the camera viewport.  Most vendors would have just given the show of a photo studio without the great light set, but lighting is what they do and this has got to be one of the best sets out there and it is extremely easy to use.  I have never had a bad render with it yet.

Iray D.I.Y Portrait Lights by ForbiddenWhispers are a great set to have when you want something a little more exciting than a straight fashion shoot type setting.  It is also great fun to play with and they load with just a couple of clicks.  Pick the preset you like and you are ready to go.  She also has the Warhol Inspired Lights Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 which I think are great fun to use.  They are a step away from basic, however, but still easy to use.

iRadiance Mesh Lights for Iray by DimensionTheory is a great set and I've gotten a lot of use out of these.

I'm sure there are other great sets in the shop.  These are just my personal favorites.

I don't have much experience with any of the free light sets that are out there, but there are some on ShareCG.com and I'm sure there are some listed in the Freebies section of the forums.  I believe DesignAnvil has one listed there which I've downloaded through his Facebook page, but haven't played with yet.  It is on my list of many things I need to do.  Someone might chime in with links and reviews for other sets.  I have gotten some 'free' light sets that are good that came with other products.  I would recommend looking through any products that you've purchase because, if it came with a light set, those are great for kitbashing and using in other renders.  They will also teach you a lot about lighting different sets.  In Iray, mesh lighting is great and you can make those with a simple plane and adjusting the emission settings under the Surfaces Tab.  Although, the set I referenced above has some unique ones that I have no idea how DimensionTheory did, but they give off great lighting.  Then, of course, there is HDRI for lighting which you can find all over the place for free or find some in the shop.  I haven't bought too many of these.  But, I downloaded a few free ones from several sites.  Just Googling HDRI will give you some hits.  Using these can be used to light a whole scene in Iray with very little other lighting depending on the look you are going for.

Hopefully, others will chime in and give you more options.

Petercat

I'm not that experienced with iray lighting, but I am experienced with real-life photo studio lighting, so take this for what it's worth.

I'm a big user of Maclean's Everyday Morphing Primitives:  http://www.daz3d.com/everyday-morphing-primitives, as well as Daz's built in primitives.

I'll create a sphere, (for incandescent) or a cylinder (flourescent) and make it emissive using DzFire's lights: https://www.daz3d.com/real-lights-for-daz-studio-iray

Place them where I would place real studio lights and adjust the luminance and color to whatever I require.

Maclean's tube makes a good snoot, for example, and his boxes make good enclosures, especially when chromed or blackened. You can even nest two boxes, shade the inside one white or chrome, and shade the outside one whatever color fits your decor.

I also use them to light ordinary scenes, for example, a couple of emissive cylinders in one of Maclean's open boxes in the ceiling of a bathroom as a flourescent light fixture.

Or I'll take one of his enclosed boxes, fill the open end with a plane, make that emissive, and have a covered light fixture.

You can take an ordinary lamp and make the bulb emissive, as well.

Daz primitives, Maclean's EMP, and DzFire provide about 90% of my iray scene lighting.

 

tombraider4ever

Thank you very much for the suggestions!  , I am very grateful getting help with this. I will look into those products and buy one of them. 

Tobor

carina_ea3751e3a5 said:

As easy to use as possible, I will mostly make portraits, full figure or from the thigh and up. I have searched a lot to find an easy set, and I have read about HDR lights but I don't know what it is. Is it difficult?

There's actually no such thing as "HDR lights." What you get are high dynamicimages that, based on their content, provide the lighting of the scene. If you have an HDR of a dark and stormy night, that's the lighting you get in your scene. If it's a picture of a desert with a super bright sun overhead, you get a very starkly lit scene that will produce strong shadows from the light of the sun.

Your best bet is to start simple, and work your way up. Hit the Default button in the Iray render panel, and you'll revert to the default Iray scene setup, which includes a basic HDR image. Then:

1. Insert a character, but no setting -- do that later.

2. Add a new camera, and make it actuve. Don't use the Perspective or other Views.

3. Find the option in the render panel to set Camera Headlamps to Never -- this prevents the automatic camera lighting when there are no other detectable light sources in the scene.

4. Find the Draw Dome setting, and turn it On if it's off (detault should be On).

When the scene is rendered, you will get lighting from the HDRi itself. You will see a defocused background image; this comes from the HDRi. The default image that D|S uses is defocused, but other HDRi's are full scenes.

Do forum searches here for users' recommendations for HDRi images to try out. Start with the free ones. You can change the HDRi used in your render by clicking on the Environment tab in the Iray render panel. Click on the image for Enviromnment Map, and browse to the HDRi file you wish to use.

Note that HDRis are not normal JPG images. They contain a higher level of values between darks and lights, which is what makes HDR "lighting" work.

From here, you can start adding other lighting, based on your preferences and work style, and change the parameters of the HDRi. I almost always play around with rotating the virtual dome that the HDR image is projected onto; this alters the direction of the light, and hence any shadows. I will also add one or two spotlights for additional "kicker" lighting. Try changing the emitter of the spotlights to Disc, and increase the emitter size to at least 30 (centimeters). That will soften the lighting and shadows.

You can certainly buy a light set, but it's better to first experiment with how to light an Iray scene. Otherwise, you may find yourself fumbling. Few of the for-purchase light sets bother to explain how they work, or even what they do.

mjc1016

And in my sig, there is a link to a list of free HDRis.   There are some that were made, by forum members, specifically for Iray use.

 

evilded777

You can not go wrong with this set: Painter's Lights

Its easy to use, has lots of versatility, but at the same time is designed mostly for portraits.

It has plenty of different light rigs, along with different environment light setups.  I use it, a lot; and I always learn something from it.

tombraider4ever

Thank you for the tips! :)