exterior_how to achieve more realism

[cadmonkey33]

A trick I use all the time for a quick contrast fix, and that I think helps add to most renders:

i like that. thanks a lot.

[simmsimaging]

Me either, I figured it out more by accident than anything else

b

[deflix]

what do you mean with the ambient component, the vray sky?

sorry about the delay in my reply -
What I meant about the ambient component is simply adding planes around the site to simulate buildings, hills, or other elevated features for the radiosity to bounce around a bit - the material of these should match an approximation of the ambient environment (in a city setting a mid-brown/grey for example. Obviously these are invisible to camera and to reflection/refraction. Another trick Ive found works well is to take a gradient map, say a dark de-saturated brown fading to light blue at the top and use it (with screen mapping) in your Gi map slot. However this is only possible if the camera angle is farily square on like yours is. It gives the impression of a kind of patina to the gi, dark from the ground to light at the top.

[max montana]

thanks a lot for your replies and suggestion to improve the image.
for my taste i like rmejia`s 1st image best(the one with the brownish tint)
can you explaine me your ps modifications?

[rmejia]

From what I can remember, the first image has:
1. Photo filter, I think it was the first one on the list -Warming Filter (85)
2. Curves were used to increase contrast, I use this one most of the time (curve) and then adjust the opacity of the layer to taste.
3. Image - Adjustments - Replace Color, then selected the green of the grass adjusting the fuzziness to select all green in image (all leaves) and then lowered the saturation a lot... maybe the hue too, but very slightly.
4. This is where the magic happens (don't know what exactly photoshop does here, it's rather random depending on the original image). Went to:
Image - Adjustments - and applied, Auto Levels, Auto Contrast and Auto Color.

[stevesideas]

From what I can remember, the first image has:
1. Photo filter, I think it was the first one on the list -Warming Filter (85)
2. Curves were used to increase contrast, I use this one most of the time (curve) and then adjust the opacity of the layer to taste.
3. Image - Adjustments - Replace Color, then selected the green of the grass adjusting the fuzziness to select all green in image (all leaves) and then lowered the saturation a lot... maybe the hue too, but very slightly.
4. This is where the magic happens (don't know what exactly photoshop does here, it's rather random depending on the original image). Went to:
Image - Adjustments - and applied, Auto Levels, Auto Contrast and Auto Color.

Doesnt the fact you are using auto.... negate the work put into steps 1-3. It seems strange to do specific adjustments and then to use photoshop to auto adjust settings later on. The fact that the results are random kind of proves that point...processes need to be consistent surely..

[rmejia]

Doesnt the fact you are using auto.... negate the work put into steps 1-3. It seems strange to do specific adjustments and then to use photoshop to auto adjust settings later on. The fact that the results are random kind of proves that point...processes need to be consistent surely..

Actually the Auto Contrast doesn't really do much, just tried it for the heck of it. The Auto does not negate the work put in previously or after if it's in another layer. The Auto effects also changes the entire image, so the replace color effect, which is targeted is not negated either. I uploaded the psd file on top of that first image. If you only turn on the layer called Background copy, you will see the image with the auto's applied. If you turn on the Photo filter, and the Curves, you will see that it does have an effect. You can have two layers (or more) with the same adjustment (levels for example) to get different effects.

To be honest with you, I almost never use the auto buttons, I used them in this case experimenting quickly, to see what happens. Sometimes it actually doesn't really change anything, this time it did so I went with it. The auto levels, you can also open the Levels, and apply the auto there to see what it does. It is changing the Red, green and Blue levels independently, so, one could do it manually that way too. It's sliding the Red to 13, Green to 26 and Blue to 5. You could adjust the colors manually, but I don't think there's any easy way of doing that without guessing a lot and it's entirely subjective, as the different examples posted in this thread, and the different preferences show.

There is also the Image - Adjustments - Variations which is the way I do it most of the time, which is manual and easier to trace back the steps (if you write them down ) , but still, all this color changing is subject to taste, unlike the auto. To be honest, I'm not that crazy with what the Auto did, at the moment it looked nice, but now I would undo do it and try something else, and tomorrow I would probably change it, and the next day too... The third image I posted did not use Auto, it just happened that it was used on the first one, and is the easiest way of getting those colors without figuring out exactly which ones it changed, and although it appears redundant, it does not negate the steps, it's just another way of doing it. If you want a consistent way... I would recommend the Variations tool instead.

[deflix]

4. This is where the magic happens (don't know what exactly photoshop does here, it's rather random depending on the original image). Went to:
Image - Adjustments - and applied, Auto Levels, Auto Contrast and Auto Color.

You should never use auto levels or colour on CG images - it is for poor digi photographs in order to achieve a full range of blacks to whites, and won't work well with the ranges in a cg image most times.

[simmsimaging]

You should never use auto levels or colour on CG images - it is for poor digi photographs in order to achieve a full range of blacks to whites, and won't work well with the ranges in a cg image most times.

I think you should just avoid rules that include the word "never"

If you don't already know how to do a lot of image adjustment stuff then the 'auto' functions can often provide a good starting point, and sometimes a good finishing point as Robert pointed out. Anyway, auto adjustments are not just for bad photos, or at least don't have to be. I would suggest trying anything that seems to help, and then you can reverse engineer the differences to build an understanding of what happens so you can fine-tune manually.

Their functions are unlikely to be random, but even a firmly fixed rule applied to a random factor will still leave you with pretty random results. Few if any treatments/adjustments/approachs will always work the exactly the same on all images - so looking for too much 'consistency' is a pipe-dream beyond a (fairly) limited point.

That's my POV anyway.
b

[deflix]

I think you should just avoid rules that include the word "never"

true!
bad hair day!!