Is it possible to set up render to only composite reflections?

[kimmo_hernborg]

I´m rendering a lot of metals, so I need to play around with curves in photoshop to make sure my metal surfaces have enough contrast to look good. I dont want my non metal surfaces to have too much contrast between bright and shadowed areas, and I dont want to change their base color too much.
So I think I need one rendered image to contain everything except reflections, and have one element being only reflections so that I can control to just my reflections i photoshop?

Is this possible? I dont want reflections in my base render.

[sirio76]

Yes is possible, you don't need PS for that, just use the VFB in composite mode. Inside the render elements tab add the beauty pass elements, then inside the VFB in composite mode add an exposure (or curve or whatever) on top of the reflection channel, then you can edit contrast etc.



If you want to edit your image in PS then you'll need to save the same channels in .vrimg format (install the free ProEXR plugin to read it), then you can rebuild the beauty pass just like in the VFB and edit the reflection channel individually, Unfortunately PS is very bad for 32bit editing so I strongly suggest to edit your images inside the VFB or more capable compositing software.

[kimmo_hernborg]

Yes is possible, you don't need PS for that, just use the VFB in composite mode. Inside the render elements tab add the beauty pass elements, then inside the VFB in composite mode add an exposure (or curve or whatever) on top of the reflection channel, then you can edit contrast etc.



If you want to edit your image in PS then you'll need to save the same channels in .vrimg format (install the free ProEXR plugin to read it), then you can rebuild the beauty pass just like in the VFB and edit the reflection channel individually, Unfortunately PS is very bad for 32bit editing so I strongly suggest to edit your images inside the VFB or more capable compositing software.

Thank you, thats very helpful!