Hi,
Builtdown wrote:I´ve been using Octane for years but I have struggled with shadows always. I have adjusted them in Photosop but now I would like to hear some tips to make this easier and directly in raw render.
3 elements: lighting, shading and "color management" ("image formation").
Builtdown wrote:Evening light is nice but the shadow over left house is too strong.
Unless the Diffuse Ray Depth (in the render kernel) is set too low, then it seems to be expected. High contrast would be caused for various reasons, such as:
- weak light sources (sun included!)
- no scene light bounce (they often do when buildings are close to each other)
- too absorbing materials (albeit it's usually the opposite)
Resources:
Octane Kernel SettingsBuiltdown wrote:I would not like to increase Exposure or make sun light stronger because the light wall will get "burned".
Too late, already the case. Looking closely at the running male's white shirt for instance, or the kid on the right side. The Octane sun is probably set at its default value (rather low).
Resources:
Octane LightingOCIO & DRTBuiltdown wrote:And if I adjust gamma, it will make the picture look bad. How should I do to make light/shadow a bit more even?
What's commonly known as "Gamma" should never be changed. It's usually set to 1.0 "linear" or ~2.2 (sRGB EOTF) but does not suffice to produce an appropriate digital imagery.
Resources:
Offline Rendering Digital Imaging 101 (“Survival Kit”)All the links I have shared may be overwhelming but it is in fact a 5min task for roughly everything, and simpler than it looks (at least in practical).
I would strongly suggest to ditch Photoshop and any Adobe software as none of them are designed for high dynamic range CGI offline rendering post production. Fusion Standalone or Nuke are the top tier recommendations (although not "perfect"), and if the paywall is an issue, I could suggest some free solutions for basic CG post-production.
Feel free to share any question you may have and you are welcome to message me if needed.