Lighting Architectural Interiors

[eyepiz]

Hello,

I usually light up my interiors scenes with IES lights and rarely use plane...however I'm working on a large space and decided to give plane lights a go since its so large, and for the sake of render times...so far not much luck with planes, large ones cause hot spots and if I use smaller ones I need to use much more of them, then I might as well use IES lights I guess.

My idea was to use planes to create ambient light and add some ies for extra detail...How do you pros normally light up scenes like this?

Bellow are some examples of my scene...right now in on a simple white diffuse and refractive shader for the windows.

I would appreciate any tips!

[danio]

One really easy way to soften up a plane light is to use a texture with it. Some kind of gradated image, usually from the center out just to make the edges less hard. Pretty simple and fast to set up.

[alexyork]

I would personally light this space using the actual, real lighting spec. As in place lights where lights will be in reality, and show them. It will be a simpler process and more realistic. You can then flood the scene with additional light if needed using ambient lights or planes outside, or large vray lights, or portals or simply whacking up some external lighting via the vraysky or a map/HDRI etc.

In other words, I would let the design do the work. If you have larger areas with no specified real light objects then you could use some small spherical lights or ambient lights.

[Macker]

Absolutely agree with alex. Treat it as if you were an architectural photographer; could you change the lights in the room? Probably not. Could you add your own fill lights? Yes.

[AlexP]

I would personally light this space using the actual, real lighting spec. As in place lights where lights will be in reality, and show them. It will be a simpler process and more realistic. You can then flood the scene with additional light if needed using ambient lights or planes outside, or large vray lights, or portals or simply whacking up some external lighting via the vraysky or a map/HDRI etc.

In other words, I would let the design do the work. If you have larger areas with no specified real light objects then you could use some small spherical lights or ambient lights.

100% this. Dont start with fill lights etc. Start with the actual lights, then fill where needed.

[Morne]

I think eyepiz already knows all this. He was specifically asking however how to make things faster.

Didn't mention quality or realism. So with those assumptions, add BIGGER vraylights and less of them. For example in some areas you have 4 clusters. Just replace those 4 with one BIG one. Just mind the size so the light doesnt come too close to the walls otherwise you will get that heavy contrast on the wall.

OR

Just stick in a big geometry plane or spline, make it invisible to camera, and stick a VRaylightMtl on it. Like so:


But if you want to do it properly, then follow the other guys suggestions

[eyepiz]

Thanks for the replies!...Looks like with larger light you loose quality and realism and are not really ideal in my situation. I never used this approach before but have often seen in small scale demos sometimes just like the exterior lighting and a few planes are enough to light a room very well, but again these scenes are tiny in comparison to what I'm working with.

I did go back to my typical approach similar to what Alex suggested, thanks Alex!. Below are few shots with the scene re-lite in a more realistic approach light were light would be in the real world. I have almost 300 IES now and rendertimes are reasonable. these are still very preliminary, I'm waiting on the lighting plan from the designers.

[Neilg]

It looks like your environment light is barely contributing - those are big windows and in an office building like that it's rare you'd need the lights on during the day. i'd switch them all off, turn up the environment until the areas by the windows are getting bright and then turn the interior lights back on where you need them (corridors etc).

[eyepiz]

It looks like your environment light is barely contributing - those are big windows and in an office building like that it's rare you'd need the lights on during the day. i'd switch them all off, turn up the environment until the areas by the windows are getting bright and then turn the interior lights back on where you need them (corridors etc).

Your right, the environment lights barely contribute...I have a Vray Sun and Sky portals, if I turn up the intensity of the sun it completely overexposes and blows out the lighting near the windows.

Should I be using regular lights instead of portals? or an HDRI instead of the Vray Sky?

[Macker]

Just use a brighter camera exposure.

[dlparisi]

Just use a brighter camera exposure.

...and Reinhard color mapping - adjust the Burn Value as req'd.

[joconnell]

If you're going to use the actual amount of lights that should be there, the new probablistic lights option should speed things up for you a fair bit too.

[eyepiz]

Here's the scene with only the sun and sky portals.

Lighting

Sun Intens: 1.0

Color Mapping: Reinhard Burn 0.0 (basically exponential)

Cam Exposure
F-number: 8.0
shutter speed: 20

[Macker]

Looks really good. The exposure may/may not have to change as you add different materials; obviously a matt black space will reflect less light than a shiny white one, etc.

My preference is to blow out the highlights on big windows, favouring using the VRay lens effects to soften the edges - but it's up to you; you could model an exterior or photoshop one in.

[eyepiz]

Thanks Macker!...I think I found a good balance between lighting and exposure...now onto materials

Lighting

Sun Intens: 1.0
IES Lighting
Vray Sky environment

Color Mapping: Reinhard Burn 0.0 (basically exponential)

Cam Exposure
F-number: 2.0 (I find it easier to work with lower values and IES lights)
shutter speed: 230