Help: Lighten Shadows, what method works best?

[visions]

Hi,
This is a general question is related to Exteriors and dark shadows
How would you go about lightening the shadows under Eaves or Ceilings. I always seem to have this problem in my exterior renders using IRR+LC and a direct light with Vray shadows. My preferred mode of rendering is IRR+LC and an overide max enviornment of value 1, with the direct light being 1 to 1.5. Most of my work is exterior Arch Visualisation and goes into print.

Is the shadow controlled by using lighter materials, by increasing the amount of GI created and recieved or just by increasing the enviornment value, or is it a function of the color mapping......
...so many factors, which is the best and most effective?
This question came about after seeing this post.
http://www.chaosgroup.com/forum/phpB...ic.php?t=14174

any suggestions?
Thanks
Vivek

[Morbid Angel]

i recomend looking at this tutorial
http://www.chaosgroup.com/forum/phpB...ic.php?t=10854

[visions]

Thanks,
i have actually read this article 15 times, and have never been able to answer all the q's.
Does this apply to images that will be printed? All our renderings go to print, this Linear workflow seems to be for the display only. Is my presumption correct?

What happens if you are using an LCD monitor, we have a mix of Crt and lcd's in our studio, does this method work with the lcd as well?

what happens when the image is opened in Photoshop? is there a way to save that curve and apply it at will to any station?

Thanks
Vivek

[paulison]

i also had a go at the linear workflow to counter some issues such as dark shadows.

as far as i know, the only value you need to vary between CRT and LCD displays is the gamma value. 2.2 is way too high for LCD, but how do you work out the correct value?? I tried 1.74 which someone else suggested and this looks pretty close....

currently all of my exterios render out dark and in post i photoshop the brightness and contrast to something acceptable. usually this results in a bit of lost quality.

I love the projects with white soffit lining/ eaves...

how about turning glass off and precaluculating the lighting with material ovveride so everything is white?

[DaForce]

Follow Jujubee's simples insctructions here
http://www.chaosgroup.com/forum/phpB...=113503#113503
and you should be fine. Just remember to render to the VFB then what ever you save will be properly correct and read for print

[visions]

Thanks DaForce,
that artice is probably the most confusing one that i have read in my 41 years!

Finally i think i will use option B! and try a lower LCD gamma of 1.74 and 2.2 for the CRT's.

Thanks
VIvek

[DaForce]

hehehe the way i see it.. if you just want to try things out.. dont worry about udnerstanding it.. just give it a whirl ... its really a piece of cake to setup.. understanding it is a whole different kettle of fish

Best of luck