Daz Enviro Lighting

[JustNotFatal]

Hi All,
I'm using this environment asset https://f95zone.to/threads/contemporary-home.7987/ and all my characters turn out fairly dark. I've played around with various lighting and there has been zero difference. Is there something missing with that asset that I'm too new to notice/know of?

Spoiler: Sample Images

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[Rich]

There are a couple of possibilities. First, if you're dealing with interior scenes, then you need to provide a fair amount of lighting, since exterior light will have a hard time getting in. This either means placing a reasonable number of spotlights, or possibly using ghost lights. Imagine that you were setting up a movie set inside - you'd need some pretty fair lights to make things bright enough. (Cameras are WAY less sensitive than human eyes.)

The other thing you can look at is Tone Mapping. If you go to the Render Settings tab in Daz Studio, you'll see a Tone Mapping entry. If you click on that, the panel next to it will show a number of different settings. Decreasing "Shutter Speed" or "Film ISO" or increasing "F/Stop" will all have the effect of making the Daz Studio camera more sensitive to light, which means the image wil be brighter. Just like the fact that you can use ISO 100 film outside (who uses film any more?) but need ISO 400 film inside where it's a lot darker.

 

[JustNotFatal]

There are a couple of possibilities. First, if you're dealing with interior scenes, then you need to provide a fair amount of lighting, since exterior light will have a hard time getting in. This either means placing a reasonable number of spotlights, or possibly using ghost lights. Imagine that you were setting up a movie set inside - you'd need some pretty fair lights to make things bright enough. (Cameras are WAY less sensitive than human eyes.)

The other thing you can look at is Tone Mapping. If you go to the Render Settings tab in Daz Studio, you'll see a Tone Mapping entry. If you click on that, the panel next to it will show a number of different settings. Decreasing "Shutter Speed" or "Film ISO" or increasing "F/Stop" will all have the effect of making the Daz Studio camera more sensitive to light, which means the image wil be brighter. Just like the fact that you can use ISO 100 film outside (who uses film any more?) but need ISO 400 film inside where it's a lot darker.

Quite a few people actually.

I originally approached it like I would a movie set. However, after an hour of fiddling around with various settings like I would an IRL shoot, nothing was making the slightest difference. You and another using have suggested ghost lighting, so I'll give that a go.

 

[Rich]

Next stupid question - have you turned off the light attached to the camera? If it's on, it can mask the effects of other lights in the scene.

 

[JustNotFatal]

Next stupid question - have you turned off the light attached to the camera? If it's on, it can mask the effects of other lights in the scene.

If you are talking about the headlamp in the render settings, yes.

Spoiler: With Ghost lights

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As you can see it looks a lot better. Question is if that's good enough.

 

[rev2020]

reduce translucency weight for the skin to almost 0 so the caracters blends into the enviroment better
with the default settings all caracters looks too dark compared to the enviroment.
most of the G8F has this setting at 0.5 or more
reduce it to 0.1 or lower but not 0

also remeber that you need to lower it for the lips fingernails/toe nails also

 

[rev2020]

headlamp for the camera
turn it off

next step is to use canvases to get rid of the flat look all default renderers have.
most of the time the beauty canvas is enough.
open it in PS and lower the exposure value and you will see a big difference
better colors and higher dynamic range

 

[Rich]

If you are talking about the headlamp in the render settings, yes.

Yes, that's what I was talking about. Many don't know about it, and it can wash out the rest of the illumination.

As you can see it looks a lot better. Question is if that's good enough.

My general reaction is that the background lighting should be turned down, and the lighting on the figure should be turned up in order to draw the eye there, rather than off to the background. My tendency is to use a pair of spotlights somewhat above and a good bit to either side of the camera. Basically, you want not only to illuminate the figure, but also to cast shadows. Over-use of ghost lights tends to kill shadows, and that's one thing that makes a scene look artificial, IMHO.

Also, you may be aware of this, but the default luminosity (1500) of a Daz spotlight is VERY low - hardly enough to do anything. Sometimes that's why they don't appear to do anything. I very commonly have my spotlights dialed up to 20,000 to 50,000, sometimes even higher.

 

[JustNotFatal]

Yes, that's what I was talking about. Many don't know about it, and it can wash out the rest of the illumination.



My general reaction is that the background lighting should be turned down, and the lighting on the figure should be turned up in order to draw the eye there, rather than off to the background. My tendency is to use a pair of spotlights somewhat above and a good bit to either side of the camera. Basically, you want not only to illuminate the figure, but also to cast shadows. Over-use of ghost lights tends to kill shadows, and that's one thing that makes a scene look artificial, IMHO.

Also, you may be aware of this, but the default luminosity (1500) of a Daz spotlight is VERY low - hardly enough to do anything. Sometimes that's why they don't appear to do anything. I very commonly have my spotlights dialed up to 20,000 to 50,000, sometimes even higher.

Yeah noticed that immediately.

My gut reaction was to use spotlights but they literally made zero difference.
Which is weird since that's an average for irl spotlights (home studio). Certainly not something you'd want to touch in use.
That's an insane lumen count but hey its software not irl.
I'll play with it a bit, especially with the figure as another person pointed out.

Thanks.

 

[Rich]

That's an insane lumen count but hey its software not irl.

Yes, exactly. I just treat it as a dial whose units are meaningless.