darker shadows with vraylight

[muoto]

Hello,

is there a trick to get darker shadows with vraylights ?
I got mainly a light background studio setup, and have one or two vraylights (without irr map) that cast shadows.
shadows are there, but so light it is sometime difficult to see them

thanks

[vriikonen]

Hi - that's kind of a broad question, but it does sound like some of your ambient lights are too bright. For example, if you have no light sources in your scene except one Vray plane light, then you'll get pretty much black shadows where that one light isn't casting light. If you add one more ambient light, say a Vray dome light, your shadows will become lighter due to the added light from the dome light. If your dome light overpowers the direct light, then yes, your shadows will be very bright as well. It's all about the balance of lighting, what types of light you use, whether you use environment light etc.

You can also think about this through direct light vs. global illumination, in which the GI actually determines your shadow color and darkness / brightness. The shadows can't be darker than your overall lighting = GI. If this doesn't help or I'm not talking about the right problem, please share a couple of renderings and a screenshot of your scene, so that people on the forum can get a better idea of the issue you are having. Best regards,

[muoto]

Will do some test renderings.

Is there a difference vray handles the shadows between a standard max camera and a physical vraycam ?

[Svetlozar Draganov]

It might be useful to post a part of your scene or at least a few screen-shots from the final render and the viewport.
The shadows should be the same independent of the camera.

[vriikonen]

As far as I know, there shouldn't be any difference in rendering from a standard Max or a V-Ray Physical camera. The rendering algorithms, sampling, ray-casting etc. things happening under the hood should be the same regardless of camera type. The camera types do offer different controls for things like exposure control, white balance, depth of field, vertical shift etc. that you may find useful for rendering, but in terms of lighting and shadows, the output should be the same. Good luck with your tests!