OTOY Forums

Hi

This is my first serious attempt to make a photo-realistic render.
I know that it is not perfect but I don't know what is wrong and what to do??
Like the window looks strange.
Should I add more stuff to the room to make it look more real?
No fix in photoshop have been done, will use PS to remove firefly's later.
I use only 1 light source and that is the "daylight new"

Hope you guy's can help with some comments,,, thanks...

Settings
DL AO, max sample 5000, render time about 1 hour, GTX 680

For me at least, i don't see the image and right clicking and opening the image in a new tab asks me to login to a microsoft account. Maybe upload it directly to the post?

Thanks
Chris.

HI

Have uploaded as attachment,, thanks for the reminder!!
Brg.
Claus S

Hi clausgs

The one thing the render is lacking is bounces and that's why it's not at photo realism standard. I'd recommend you try the diffuse GI mode with about 4 bounces or more. The scene itself is fine and their's no need to add more elements to the scene as it may get cluttered for a small space like this and the composition of the scene looks nice as it is. The window too looks great but would probably want a backdrop behind it for the sense of an outdoor environment. Lastly you might want to tweak some materials a bit more, and maybe play trial and error with adding light to lamp for different mood looks.

Hope this helps .

MaTtY631990 wrote:Hi clausgs

The one thing the render is lacking is bounces and that's why it's not at photo realism standard. I'd recommend you try the diffuse GI mode with about 4 bounces or more. The scene itself is fine and their's no need to add more elements to the scene as it may get cluttered for a small space like this and the composition of the scene looks nice as it is. The window too looks great but would probably want a backdrop behind it for the sense of an outdoor environment. Lastly you might want to tweak some materials a bit more, and maybe play trial and error with adding light to lamp for different mood looks.

Hope this helps .

HI Mat

Thanks a million for you comments.
Attached is a shot of the scene after 800 samples.
I changed to GI 4 bounces, as my final render is 3070x2048 the render time increased from about 20 min to more than 5 hours, I reduced the render image to 1920x1080 what gives a render time of about 1.5 hour. I also increased the exposure but i feel it is still too dark. If I increase the exposure more it will be too white in some areas.
Do you have any comments on that.??
But the pic looks more real now, it kind of have more depth to it..

Thanks in advance.

Claus S

Make sure the gamma is set to 2.2, otherwise try changing the camera response to a different one such as the dscs315_2 mode. It will help lighten everything darker in the scene without affecting the exposure.

MaTtY631990 wrote:Make sure the gamma is set to 2.2, otherwise try changing the camera response to a different one such as the dscs315_2 mode. It will help lighten everything darker in the scene without affecting the exposure.

HI

I tried to set the gamma to 2.2 but then it get very milky look.
I tried to change the camera response it only help a little.
When I use GI mode with 4 bounces, the final render get very grainy even with MAX sample set to 5000 (1.5 hour) I guess i need to set the MAX sample to 10000 then but then the render will take about 3 hours to finish, what is too long for me.

Attached is the final render MAX sample 5000,,, for me too dark and too grainy.

Any suggestions???

Brg.
Claus S

Great render . It's not as dark as you might it might have been, personally have some contrast between darker and whiter areas always work, But if you have tried all I said and still feel it needs to be a brighter in areas then their might one last thing to try and adjust, that's either the gamma of the textures or materials in the scene or use an image editing app like photoshop to life the blacks slightly. Make sure though to export an EXR file as it is in 32 bits so you have full control.

MaTtY631990 wrote:Great render . It's not as dark as you might it might have been, personally have some contrast between darker and whiter areas always work, But if you have tried all I said and still feel it needs to be a brighter in areas then their might one last thing to try and adjust, that's either the gamma of the textures or materials in the scene or use an image editing app like photoshop to life the blacks slightly. Make sure though to export an EXR file as it is in 32 bits so you have full control.

Thanks, for the comments and help.
For me what is most annoying is the noise on the wall and the long render time ( compared to DL AO).

I am now trying with 1 light surface placed outside the window, and another light surface behind the camera. It seams to reduce the noise but the render loos a bit the depth. Attached pic after MAX samples 1000, DL diffuse (4), 20 min.

In your opinion what is the best way to light a scene like this? what light to use? environment light, or only light surfaces or other?

Thanks, Claus

Hi Claus

There's no "best way", just the way to convey the look and feel you want to achieve.

To start with, the difference between human eye and a camera should be understood.
Our eyes perpetually adapt to light intensity, which is why we have a clear view of our surroundings.

A camera don't do this which mean that pas a certain level of light some areas will be "burnt" and under another level so dark that it will be hard to distinguish anything.

Typically, in photography (interiors), if you set your camera aperture and stop to catch direct sunlight without burn the rest of the room will appear dark. If you set the exposure high enough to have some bright corners then the areas under direct sun light will be burnt. High end lenses, special films, etc...improve things a bit but you can't totally avoid this.

This is why interiors shots are generally done using two techniques: making a shot set on daylight (so the room will be under exposed), another one set on the interior light level (the windows will then appear totally "burnt") and then mix the two shots in post processing.

The other technique is too shot at dusk or dawn so that the sun rays are not to intense.

In 3D this technique can be used but there are other tricks that photographs can't use...

One is to set a strong Sky light and to lower the Sun strength, but it can't be done in Octane as they are physically correct and therefore linked together.

Another one is to place a light plane like you did + Sun light so that you can push the light strength higher than the physical Sky.

Both of these methods helps but all the light will come from the same source (in this case the window).

Another way of doing it is to simply hide / delete the walls that are not in your camera sight, letting more Skylight entering the space, but in that case you must pay attention to unwanted reflections.

And then of course you can turn on the indoor lights.

If you add just a light plane like you did it is a good trick to give it a warm color to balance the Sun light (cold, blueish color) and to set it at a low value, if your rendering give the feeling that the strongest light source is not the Sun it will look very artificial.

And of course there is the post processing as mentioned earlier.

As Matty said I don't think your renders are dark, actually they are pretty close to how a photo would look without post processing.

Once again, it's all about the mood you want to achieve.