Can / Recessed Lights

[JHuman]

I have had this problem for sometime and cannot seem to resolve it. Anyone have good settings or ideas for can / recessed lights?

Anytime I am modeling a space with only can lights as the light source the area is sooo dark, even though I will turn up the intensity. I think the size of the actual emitter is too small, whereas a 2x4 light will work perfectly, if that’s what’s in the space.

Assistance is much appreciated!
Thanks

[Jackson_cg]

Re: Can / Recessed Lights

I think the size of the actual emitter is too small, whereas a 2x4 light will work perfectly, if that’s what’s in the space.

Use Omni Lights instead.

[JHuman]

Re: Can / Recessed Lights

Thanks Jackson! I got those to work, but now more questions arise. When using those shadow lines are very harsh, how do I get the light to be softer when it comes off the source?

I tried messing with my render settings but they all came out the same.
Next I was going to try and messing with the actual light settings.

[rauango]

Re: Can / Recessed Lights

for the omni light hard shadow ... just fix the shadows radius on the light properties..and increase the subdivision of the shadows too..

default shadows radius is 1

i usually use, .4 or .3 ...

[Jackson_cg]

Re: Can / Recessed Lights

Rauango,

I'm curious to your logic of using a radius of less than zero for omni radius. Admittedly it does the same thing as increasing the radius, but it's more logical to think of the radius of the light source increasing having the same effect as a larger light source would in the real world (obviously a light source can't be smaller than zero in reality)- that's why the VRay omni size parameter down arrow won't let you go less than zero. I use omni size of 2 or 3 for most spotlights unless I'm using fake IES.

Like Rauango says, the larger the omni size the more subdivs you'll need to soften the edges of shadows smoothly.

[JHuman]

Re: Can / Recessed Lights

I dont quiet understand Jackson I am getting somewhere (slowly) on the omni lights looking better. They always look good in the tests, until I get them in an actual environment, then they always need much more tweaking.