When using a lighting prop in a scene such as a lamp, flashlight, etc. what are the benefits and drawbacks of using the normal emissive way of lighting the object, vs using a ghost light, vs using an IES profile? These lights are mainly for providing visual interest in the scene, not as the primary way to light a character. I'm thinking in terms of ease of use, good looking result, decreased chance of noise in the render and quicker render times.
Daz IES Profiles vs Normal Emissives vs Ghost Lights
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What do you want to achieve (ies, emissive and what not)?
Give some visual clue because it's not clear lol
Give some visual clue because it's not clear lol
- Aug 17, 2019
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IES is generally more directional lighting. It's good for lamps on walls, or maybe one of those kitchens that have lights under the cupboards. There's never usually a ton of use for these outside of one-offs, imo. I personally use ghost lights to illuminate the environment itself, for the most part, and then use spotlights to light/highlight the figure. They come with the bonus of being invisible (outside of very select cases.), which makes them great for roof lighting, or like the above, just popping them under a lamp shade. They're going to usually be far more flexible than IES profiles.
There's people who do light entire scenes with ghost lights, figures included, but I find the lack of control on them (and the inability to see through them via Aux Viewport) makes them tough to use for that.
All things said and done, being completely equal, most styles of lighting are going to render at about the same speeds. From a pure speed standpoint, though, ghost lights are usually going to win it. I posted these elsewhere for another topic about faster rendering, but feel like it applies here. Everything thing is the same except for the type of light. Angle, size, and everything else are as close to possible as equal.
There's people who do light entire scenes with ghost lights, figures included, but I find the lack of control on them (and the inability to see through them via Aux Viewport) makes them tough to use for that.
All things said and done, being completely equal, most styles of lighting are going to render at about the same speeds. From a pure speed standpoint, though, ghost lights are usually going to win it. I posted these elsewhere for another topic about faster rendering, but feel like it applies here. Everything thing is the same except for the type of light. Angle, size, and everything else are as close to possible as equal.
IES profiles are great when you got no strict (=forced) linear falloff (like common Iray light sources).
Other than that, I fail to see a practical case for it (doesn't mean it didn't exist but, yeah).
If it's a room with 10 or less lights, I don't really see the point.
A hangar with 192 lights with exact same pattern, I can see it.
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Thanks for your helpful replies. Looks like I'll be focusing using ghost lights for prop lighting.