255, 255, 255 White

[glorybound]

What are you guys using for white? My current scene is an all white house and to keep things from blowing out I have my white down to 200,200, 200. Has anyone had to go this low? Typically I keep my whites at 210, 210, 210

[Morne]

I never go above 220, but mostly try something between 190 and 200. You will also get better contrast with darker materials than what we were use to in the days of scanline and nothing having fresnel reflections.

If you're getting extreme times, one of the culprits could be your whites, which is a HUGE issue for light cache

From the help docs:
"Do not apply perfectly white or very close to white materials to a majority of the objects in the scene, as this will cause excessive render times. This is because the amount of reflected light in the scene will decrease very gradually and the light cache will have to trace longer paths. Also avoid materials that have one of their RGB components set to maximum (255) or above."

[Morne]

What's your glossy setting on that white?

[glorybound]

Okay. So, 200 is normal.

[Rens]

Yep, white office paper reflects about 80% to 90% of the light back, that would be an RGB value of roughly 200 to 225 for the diffuse. That could be your top benchmark as there aren't many common materials out there that reflect more.

[Macker]

235 here, but that's only for diffuse. I am fine with using 255 elsewhere such as reflection, etc.

[notamondayfan]

I use white at 200 generally. I find it easier to boost brightness and contrast in post, so my raw renders nearly always look slightly under exposed.

Dean