Daz Lighting issue

[Draco6393]

I am trying to get used to using Daz again because I haven't used it in so long. I am having a problem with the lighting. The environment I am using already has light but when I render, the character comes out dark so I added more light. I rendered again and nothing changes. How do I activate the light so the character(s) will show better?

 

[Draco6393]

I even have lights in all 4 corners. All of them are pointing at the character in the center. Am I needing to wait for the render to fully finish so I can see a change or am I able to see it before it finishes?

 

[Jumbi]

The set is illuminated. And she is definitely receiving some light.

Since I gather that the set is an enclosed room (correct me if I am wrong), the usual way to get direct light on a character in that situation is by using scene lights. Try placing a spotlight in the set, point it at her, set its parameters (with the spotlight selected in the scene tab, open Parameters>Light). Pay special attention to this one: Luminous Lux (Lumen). That will set the intensity of the light emitted by the spotlight.

Also, have a look at Render settings>Environment>Environment mode. Make sure you are using either 'Dome and scene' or 'Scene only mode'.

 

[Draco6393]

The set is illuminated. And she is definitely receiving some light.

Since I gather that the set is an enclosed room (correct me if I am wrong), the usual way to get direct light on a character in that situation is by using scene lights. Try placing a spotlight in the set, point it at her, set its parameters (with the spotlight selected in the scene tab, open Parameters>Light). Pay special attention to this one: Luminous Lux (Lumen). That will set the intensity of the light emitted by the spotlight.

Also, have a look at Render settings>Environment>Environment mode. Make sure you are using either 'Dome and scene' or 'Scene only mode'.

Do I need to let it render fully before I can tell if the light worked?

 

[Jumbi]

Do I need to let it render fully before I can tell if the light worked?

No, not really. If you select nVidia iRay in the viewport, the lights in the scene should work and you should eventually get a good preview of the render. That is if your hardware is powerful enough to manage iRay directly in the viewport.

 

[Draco6393]

Jumbi Yea I don't have a good system. I don't even have a gamer computer. I just have a regular laptop straight from the store. Thing is though, it does do some good renders even with it being factory. Here are a few examples that I did before I had to stop for a while

 

[Jumbi]

I see. My advice is that you place a spotlight near the woman and point it at her. Set its lumen to a high value, start with 50,000 or even 100K for example. You can delete the other lights you say you placed in the corners of the room, since they seem to not be working anyway and all that you are gonna get by keeping them in the scene is longer render times, which is not your priority now. Your priority is getting some light working on her. And once you get that solved, then you can start adding more lights if that is your wish.

Render the scene with that single spotlight and see what you get. I'm attaching some values I am using in a spotlight of a scene of mine, if that helps.



Do not change the default values of your spotlight for the parameters I am showing marked inside of a circle above. Just make sure to crank up the Luminious Flux (Lumen) value that I am marking with that arrow.

 

[noping123]

When you say "A while ago" I wonder how long ago you mean, and what sort of lighting you're using?

My first thought (which could be way wrong) is that you're using a ton of ghost lights that don't work anymore.

For reference - anything sort of ghost lighting from daz 4.16 or earlier will not work properly at all in daz 4.20 or 4.21 - so if the stuff you were previously working with was designed for those, and you previously rendered on 4.16, any ghost lighting (basically invisible emissive if you're not familiar with the term) wouldn't work, and wouldn't show up properly on 4.2 or 4.21.

My first guess based on looking at the renders you provided is the environment lighting is fine but you're trying to light the characters with ghost lights from older versions of daz, and they just aren't doing anything because they don't work anymore.

Of course if you're using the same version you used whenever "A while ago" was - or if you're using point/spotlights and not ghost lights then obviously I'm wrong so ignore most of this - but that's what it looks like to me at least.

 

[Draco6393]

noping123 I am using Daz4.21 (64-bit). The older renders I posted were made using the same program. What it could have been was that the environments I was using in those renders already had lighting assets in it. I got a tip to try and use spotlighting for my renders. I don't have a gaming computer or any good equipment right now so that causes my renders to take a very long time. From what I did with the spotlights and what was able to be seen from the rendering that was done. It has helped a lot.