Lighting Architectural Interiors

[joconnell]

Your lighting and exposure is going to totally change as soon as you put in materials - do the same test with flat simple diffuse colours that represent the maps / materials / colours you're going to use on all the surfaces as you might end up losing the amount and depth of light bouncing that you're currently getting as soon as you make surfaces lighter and darker.

[snivlem]

joconnell is very right. Sometimes I find if it is something like dark carpet, just to put in a GI override with a mid to light grey material. Ads a lot of light to the scene and is not noticeable (that the material is being overridden)..

[eyepiz]

I have Lobby shot in this project were the sky portals are doubling my render times, producing huge amounts of noise and giving me a washed out look. even lowering the exposure is still giving me a washed out look on top of the other stuff.

Any Ideas?

[Neilg]

All your light is coming from behind the camera, a photo in that space would look washed out and flat without some postwork.
Build some non-visible geometry behind you to block the light coming in right at the base, and maybe add some extra lights up near the top pointing down at 45deg to give some more direction and color.

those images have very different light setups on, is the difference just the sky portals being on? The first one could work, but the second one is killing any and every shadow you used to have. Leave them off and maybe just add some big lights above casting down.

[eyepiz]

All your light is coming from behind the camera, a photo in that space would look washed out and flat without some postwork.
Build some non-visible geometry behind you to block the light coming in right at the base, and maybe add some extra lights up near the top pointing down at 45deg to give some more direction and color.

those images have very different light setups on, is the difference just the sky portals being on? The first one could work, but the second one is killing any and every shadow you used to have. Leave them off and maybe just add some big lights above casting down.

Thanks that makes sense...it the same lighting set up in both images, the first one is with no sky portals and the second is with.

[eyepiz]

This is what my lighting set up looks like...Maybe since the lobby is so exposed I don't need Sky Portals?

[Neilg]

I wouldn't bother with sky portals - it's pushing too much light in and the shadows on the first are much better defined. If you want more light in then increase the power of whatever is in the environment (is it a hdri or sun/sky?)
Where you have a bunch of IES lights at the very top though, try adding a big vray plane up there with a warmer color to counter balance all the cold coming in from the environment. It'll create some contrast with the lower areas being colder and the top a little warmer. Or just turn up/warm up the ies lights you already have.

Might be easier to do all this with a mid grey override - I find it's easier to see whats going with colors in the lighting when doing big changes.

[eyepiz]

I wouldn't bother with sky portals - it's pushing too much light in and the shadows on the first are much better defined. If you want more light in then increase the power of whatever is in the environment (is it a hdri or sun/sky?)
Where you have a bunch of IES lights at the very top though, try adding a big vray plane up there with a warmer color to counter balance all the cold coming in from the environment. It'll create some contrast with the lower areas being colder and the top a little warmer. Or just turn up/warm up the ies lights you already have.

Might be easier to do all this with a mid grey override - I find it's easier to see whats going with colors in the lighting when doing big changes.

Thanks Neilg!!!

I got rid of the Sky Portals and added some low intensity warm plane lights at each floor lever in the stairway, and wow did it make a difference! I'm using a Vray sun and sky so I can probably boost it a little bit.

I have always have used plain white lights and now see where the warmer ones help.