Need some advice to render images and get the right balance with light and shadows!

Alfhak712

I have build up a street scene and used diferent kind of render! There is a distance ligth acting as the sun and one
below the street with reduced settings to act as reflected lights! There is also a spotlight facing the church but it is
removed in Test 4 pic.! Test 1.pic. is done with "Hardware Assisted Render" and Test 2.pic. is render with"3Dlight" and Test 4.pic
is used with "Preview Render" which result is best of all of them! Last image show the settings for 3Dlight and I got the advice
to make this settings to cut the time for render time making animation!

I think the Render with 3Dlight would be the best to have the best result if you can master how to set up lights correct so you get a good balance so you don't get overexposed or underexposed. I know people make movies with DAZ and can have it crystal clear and good balance with light and shadows and the same with images!

I would like to have some advice how I can improve my skills for better images etc?

Richard Haseltine

"Best" is up to you to decide - in theory it would be 3Delight, assuming you wanted that sort of look and assuming you had lights and materials suitably set up. Shadows will usually look poor in OpenGL modes, and you won't get things like reflections and refraction, but it doesn't look as if you are using those anyway.

sriesch

One thing that jumps out at me immediately is that there are no shadows underneath the cars. Unless this is intentional, make sure your lights are set up to cast shadows; for example, the default for spotlights seems to be no shadows.

Jaderail

The standard for all lights from the Create Menu is No Shadows. To adjust Lights, as it seems you have learned, you select it in the Scene Tab and then use the Parameters Tab for settings. For Uber lights like Uber Enviroment you Open the Surfaces Tab to adjust, Uber lights are Shaders and not a true light. So they must be adjusted as a Surface.