Resort Hotel

[OPEN_RANGE]

Thanks for your review! Regarding materials, are you suggesting that the materials that have been specified are not so attractive..... or that the materials settings need work?

[glorybound]

I don't know, they look great to me. I really like the 3rd one. I did a little color grading, which I hope you don't mine.

[OPEN_RANGE]

Thank you for your reply! No I don't mind seeing what you did, in fact I like it. Can you describe what you did/mean by "color grading"? I see the vignetting effect and I especially like the view #3 brightened/increased exposure (or whatever you did). The view1 and view2 look too bright to me and view3 is bordering on too bright. Somewhere between what I did and your adjustment would be good IMHO. Maybe my monitors are set too bright?

Thanks again for your help!

[glorybound]

I let PS's histogram tell me what was too bright or too dark. I duplicated the layer, set the top layer to black and white, put a curve on it for more contrast, and set the opacity to 20%. I also added a warming filter.

[glorybound]

It also seems like your main light is basically behind your camera, which flattens the image.

[OPEN_RANGE]

Thanks for your follow up. I'm not sure how you use the histogram, I looked at it and it did not really tell me anything. I will look into how to use that.

I duplicated the layer and used Image>Adjustments>Black and White to make the duplicated layer B-W. I added a medium contrast curve to it and set the layer opacity to 20%. My results are not the same as what you show. It brightens the image only slightly and de saturated the colors a bit -as expected.

However, setting the layer blending mode to Screen gives a result more like yours. Did you use that layer blending mode?

Thanks again this is very helpful to me.

(Also in all 3 I have only 1 light - vray sun. It is , more or less in the position that the sun was when I took the site photography. The sun is between the two cameras for 1 and 2, both use same position. Maybe 30 degree to the Right on view 1 and 30 degree to the left on view 2. For view 3 it is pretty far >45 degree to the left.)

[glorybound]

Put a level adjustment, it'll show a gap on the right side, slide it over to the left. If you leave your adjustment layer on normal, it affects both the color and luminosity. You can change the layer to color, if you don't want to effect the images brightness.

[OPEN_RANGE]

thanks once more!

I am familiar with using levels and curves esp on background photography. Not sure why I never thought to apply it to a finished render. I like what the levels adjustment does , esp to #3.

Also have used warming filter in the past. Seems to help on most of what I do, I think because I have neutral camera white balance and white overide filter for vray sky. Again not sure why I didn't apply some warming to these, they do seem at bit cool

Still unsure about the effect of adding the 20% opacity black and white layer. seems to just de-saturate the image a bit.

As is often the case I am once again wishing I had made these improvements before delivery to client. Deadlines and eagerness to deliver and etc.

Again, your pro input and etc. regarding this is very helpful to me.

[glorybound]

Have you tried Google's NIX software? I paid $400 for it, but it is now free. Applied subtly, it helps a lot.

[OPEN_RANGE]

I have not tried that Google NIX and I'm not familiar with it. I will check it out. thanks!