Lightning - workflow?

[Jorgensen]

hi

there are a lot of ways to adjust lightning, but i wonder what is the best workflow to get the best lightning in a scene?

right now i use
- clayrender
- adjust octane lights
- adjust camera exposure

but are there other usefull tips?

thanks

[PAQUITO]

I mostly use the AO kernel. What I do is:

1. Adjust AO distance so it doesn´t create black areas. That´s my sweetspot of the shading.
2. Adjust power and temperature of the emitters.
3. Adjust power of the ambient
4. Adjust exposure.

Steps 2 and 3 aren´t aimed to really setup the intensity of the lights, but the balance between the two. Once you reach that balance, just raise/lower the exposure.

[kevinshane]

Hi,the lighting depends on what kind of space u are facing,most of the time u gonna need to start with the "large mood" lighting(aka hdr env lighting or IBL),and then slowly go with "small lights" such as spot lights

there is 4 different kind of lighting process(only for the arch viz)
1. open interior daylight(with windows that the sun light can be passing through) the very first thing is creating a sun and play around the position until u happy with the result, and then put a octane rectangle light to every window, until u get a reasonable GI env(of cuz u need to finish the material process),once u are happy with the whole environment,and then start to lighting the ceiling spot lights(yes,u should turn them all on,even it's a daylight env,I mean,most of the time )so, "large lighting" first(sun), then "small lighting"(ceiling spot lights, ies, lamp lights,etc..)

2. close interior(no windows) the very first thing would be lighting the whole interior space by creating some area light(octane rectangle light,and don't put that size too small,say 100cm x 100cm) base for the spot light position(please don't tell me there is no ceiling lights according to interior design,if there is no light at all, fake it ) once u feel that it's ok,and then start the "small lighting" process....after u finish turning them all on, if u still feel that some area still too dark, u can go ahead create some rectangle octane lights and then place to some corner(better invisible in camera)

3. exterior daylight same as open interior daylight, u gonna need to choose a sun light hdr first(or create a octane sun light),it's important to choose a nice hdr file to let your scene(eg.some hdr can produce a very nice sun light)

4. exterior night view always start with choosing a hdr file to lighting the whole scene,once u are happy with the env color(u can adjust camera gamma as well),u can now going to the "small lights" process,creating some rectangle octane lights to simulate the interior lighting,when the interior part is done, u can move to lighting the street lights,car lights,etc...(those lights are outside the interior)

hope this can help
this is an example to lighting a night view building
render size is 5k,render time is about 5min on a single titan,background is a photo(provided by client),project loctation is from UK,york house(maybe wish the client don't know anything about otoy )

[Jorgensen]

thanks to you both.

i'm trying to recreate a model / scene i've found - and still have a long way to go, and i think i need to request some tricks when i have progressed some more.

@paquito
i need to use PT for this, as it is an interior and DL / AO isn't good enough.

@kevinshane
my biggest concern is the order of adjustment - light power, camera exposure
ps. do you have more plans for toturials? your toturial of your "Octane Render Tutorials Volume 4 Exterior" gave me a lot of knowledge