Camera and Sun

[glorybound]

Since I have started using V-Ray, something like 14 years ago, I have never been able to use a V-Ray Camera with a V-Ray Sun/Sky and real-world settings. Below is a photo to the left and my render to the right. I used the photo's settings for the time of day and camera settings, but as you can see, nothing looks correct. I can go back to my normal workflow, but I want to know what I am doing wrong.

[glorybound]

Here is the same space and all I did was swap to an HDRI.

[M.Max]

I think because you are looking at the raw render and the photo reference is tone-mapped .
also your walls are white -and maybe even too white (high albedo) which cause more light bouncing.
Also I heard that-I stand to be corrected - Vray camera is using different exposure table comparing to Max physical camera , so it worth checking with that too .
Those are just late night random thoughts, so I'll wait for official comment on this : ))

[glorybound]

I don’t thing the photo was tone mapped. My client took it yesterday and sent it from the job site.

[M.Max]

I'm not expert but as far as i know every camera have a limited dynamic range and try to squeeze info into this range and apply some curve to make the image look "nice" but again this is just random thought on this as your issue could be caused by something else.

I think @^Lele^ can give -as always- better answer here : ))

[glorybound]

But.... open in Corona, convert, and render. I don't have a problem there. Something inherently isn't right in V-Ray. It might be me, which is why I am asking.

[^Lele^]

Well, as it was pointed out, it has to do with the shaders' albedo, that i can tell.
That wood would be around 10% total reflectivity (putting a handy-wavy number to it!), while the scene you're rendering is likely around 90% for those white walls.
The outside looks as the picture (ie. well burnt out, unlike for the HDRI), while on the inside you have a ton of bouncing, high-energy, low-decay light which can't extinguish due to the high walls albedo.
You may also have to verify the sun angle, as if it's even a bit off, it can change the sun's intensities quite a bit.

Citing a conversion to Corona isn't helpful (it only grows the number of variables at play), but a scene would definitely be.

[glorybound]

I use SigarShaders, so maybe I rely too much on their numbers. I do know that their whites are more of a darker gray. For the sun, the photo has the time of day, location, and camera settings, so I am assuming that is accurate information.

[^Lele^]

So, the lighting is fine, the camera exposure is fine, what is left is the albedo of the shaders.
Make them *much* darker still (output map, or if present, output section of the bitmap), and it'll start to get to the levels of light distribution you see in the photo.

[glorybound]

I remember when you told us to make everything .255 darker. I am still mad at you for that . I spent weeks updating all my assets and then weeks undoing it.

[francomanko]

i remember a time when white was white, not grey

[^Lele^]

I remember when you told us to make everything .255 darker. I am still mad at you for that . I spent weeks updating all my assets and then weeks undoing it.

See what i did to you.
Fifteen years later, and you're still broken because of this.
I'm ever so sorry.

[glorybound]

All this pent-up anger over the year. Grrr...

[glorybound]

BTW, I can easily correct things by tweaking the camera or sun intensity, however, that isn't the point. I wonder if everyone plays with the camera exposure until it looks correct and the issue isn't being addressed, or people stopped talking about it.

[^Lele^]

From my part, i matched live footage for years, without anything untoward from the side of V-Ray.
This is why i'm surprised by your difficulties, but then i didn't have to match a thing in a long while, so you leave me with a modicum of doubt.
Could you maybe share just the basics of that shot, privately, with me?
Sun, the walls, the glass, or something along the lines?

We could continue the convo through email (so you could uncork the anger bottle and pour! ^^) and i could be more specific.