Lighting a product

[Macker]

Hey guys,

I have recently been asked to render a designer table - the modelling and shading part are nice and easy, but how do you guys go about setting up a lighting setup for these things? I will be wanting to do some high key, all white background shots, etc. I'm sure you know the type of thing I'm after.

Do any of you have any tips, or really good tutorials to follow? I've spotted a few, but many are either dated or just plain wrong.

How do you decide where you position your lights? What makes you choose those positions, colours and intensities? What is it you aim for?

[Mokiki]

I think your talking about an infinity sky setup. An easy way to do it without much comping in photoshop and do it completely inside vray is:

1. Inside 3ds max Environment and Effects Tab you set a background color or map you'd like your product to sit on.
2. In the Render options you disable affect background inside the color mapping tab.
3. Turn on GI Environment and set it to black in the Environment options inside vray.
4. Add MTLWrapper to your ground/groundmaterial and tick on Matte Surface and Alpha Contribution -1 + Shadows and Affect Alpha

I might have forgotten a step but this way your product should sit neatly on a backgroundcolor or gradient with all shadows and even reflections if you want.

In terms of lighting I wish I could recommend hdr light studio at the moment. It is really great for product shots but the current version 5 with the updated pricing model is just way too expensive to recommend. I don't know what mark is thinking. Maybe you can buy version 4 for cheap somewhere. (Obviously buying a software like this only makes sense if you do visualizations like this more than once)

I don't think anybody could really help how they would position the light without having seen the product. It always comes down to what lines or parts do you want to highlight and from personal experience most of the lighting process is experimentation.

Edit:
Also don't go overboard with too many lights. Don't fight against the shape/form of your object. For example you have a round object but have light 3 lights (1 front 2 from the sides) making it appear flat. This is something pretty basic but I have seen countless examples were people overlight things.

[joconnell]

Generally I go for placing lights that'll reveal the form / shape of the product as well as possible. Say for example you've got a cylindrical bottle, if you place a light to it's side you can have it at full intensity and evenly fading off towards the front facing parts of it - this information can infer to the viewer that it's a round shape. Like wise placing a lit directly above the bottle will have the flat top of the cap quite bright but the light will fall off as the flat part gradually curves into it's vertical sides. I try to place lights to pick out interesting details in the form - they can be tiny lights purely to get a small section of detail only. Definitely look at putting the softbox texture into your lights too just so you don't have any really hard edges.

[Macker]

Thanks for the help guys, it's much appreciated.

Just how many ways can you present a white, square table? Forgive me if this is basic, or if I'm lacking imagination - my field is architecture, not product.

[Mokiki]

That seems indeed a bit tricky,.... are you allowed to use props maybe make it look like a dinner table? (If its that kind of table)

[joconnell]

Is it square on all sides, legs are four sided and all? For that your best bet is some gradients reflecting on the very large flat surfaces and then some little pings of light hitting the chamfers in various spots just to pick out some details.

[Macker]

It's not a million miles off this, but actually turns out its not white, but entirely wood...

[joconnell]

Great - then you're looking at pretty much targeting the spec / reflection channels. Try to place lights using the place highlight tool and have a few nice little gradients of specular hits along different edges as well as soft washes of light over the main flat surfaces. I'd nearly put a black vray material with glossiness around .55 and fresnel on to start with, if you can get all your highlights looking interesting with that, that'll drive a lot of interest in the image. Try angling your lights so that they fall off slightly over the surface of the table.

[Pixelab]

Usually, I put only a Studio HDRI on a dome and play with the inverse gamma & orientation. In RT you'll be able to test different setups and quickly find what you need.

Try "free studio hdri" on google to start (I remember downloading some on Ronen's blog but can't find the link anymore)

[Macker]

Try to place lights using the place highlight tool and have a few nice little gradients of specular hits along different edges as well as soft washes of light over the main flat surfaces.

Is this a part of VRay I've never used, or third party?

[Wilyman]

Is this a part of VRay I've never used, or third party?

It's just part of Max.
Hold your mouse down on the align tool in the main toolbar, and it's the fourth button down.
The icon's a little sphere with an arrow pointing at it.

You need to have a light selected, and then after you've clicked the button, just click where you want the highlight, and the light will move accordingly.

Cheers,

John

[Macker]

I must be doing something incorrectly, as nothing happens when I try that tool. No lights are created, no existing ones (when selected) are moved, etc?

[edit] It's because it doesn't work with a single click, it's click and hold. Got it.

So do you guys often end up with lots of cameras in shot? Presumably you just make them invisible?