I’ve gotten pretty good results using the sun/sky so I’m curious what problems you are having. My gut tells me that vraysky is already set up to work correctly in linear space rather than the other way around (meaning it doesn’t need to be in a colorcorrect map to output correctly) but I could be wrong. Either way I’m happy with the results I get and rarely need to adjust the sky output (I do this mainly for sunrise and sunset images where I’m trying to get a nice warm soft glow from the sky).
You can easily generate the correct gamma corrected color by using the vraycolor map and setting your gamma to 2.2 and entering the rgb values in the color color selector. Works every time.
Same here, I usually just adjust it in photoshop. This mainly shows up on interiors where there is a large skylight vs. direct light relationship.
Personally, I use LWF on every project - interior and exterior and couldn’t be more pleased with the results. My intent is to get better light and color distribution in the images. I don’t however go the final step and do all of my post production in linear as Thorsten does. The advantages to keeping it linear are obvious but since most of my work is stills, and photoshop really doesn’t support working linearly I usually just bake the gamma into the saved FB image. Yeah, I could use a linear profile (e.g., AIM RGB) in photoshop but I then have to ensure that the clients are viewing it in a ICC compliant viewer so it displays correctly.
Of course, it’s possible to get a beautiful image from the regular work flow, to each his own. I just think that many people make it or see it to be waaayyy more complicated than it needs to be. A couple of settings in the preferences and a couple of settings in the vray render settings and your off and running pretty much. I’m asked quite often to light and render other firms max models that already have textures applied. These are undoubtedly not setup for LWF or VRAY but inside of an hour or two I can have all of the materials setup for VRay and LWF by changing the preferences and adjusting the materials with a VRayColor or ColorCorrect Map (of course time depends on the scene size ;)).
By 3dsmax I meant the renderer, in this case VRay, sorry for the confusion. VRay is the one that calculates light in linear (gamma 1.0) but the result is displayed in a monitor with a gamma of 2.2 (or 1.8 on macs)
Thanks, I wasn’t sure if i should do it that way or by using colourcorrect map. I’ll be sure to try that on my next project. I can usually get things close by approximation but occasionally clients do request slight tweaks because of my approach.
I tend to add more light or change colourmapping settings, the environmental light multiplier or secondary light bounces in order to get more light into shadowed areas. I know some of these methods make the render take more time than if i just used LWF but generally the result seems to look good for me. I think many people are mistakenly thinking that they NEED LWF to solve issues such as shadows being too dark when this isnt the case. For me, increasing gamma is just adding light to dark areas that isn’t really there so the option of gamma 1.0 and increasing the light sources is the most accurate result IMHO.
I’m basing this on the assumption that raising the gamma has a larger impact on darker colours (as mentioned by others) since peoples 1.0gamma scenes generally have shadows that are a bit too strong.
anyway LWF/ RWF is just a gamma adjustment when it comes down to it. I generally do a slight gamma adjustment in photoshop anyway from 1.0 to about 1.2 which suits my own scene setups. So really to skip this process and consistently brighten my shadows slightly and add a few more shades of grey to the gradient, Maybe i’ll start using gamma 1.2 PIWF!!
Reading this is quite helpful and does justify the need for a LWF. The thing that throws me off is the sRGB curve in this link. are we adding 2.2 gamma and not ending up with a correct image anyway?
Sort of. LWF scenes do indeed affect shadows, but for a different reason.
When posting pictures on the internet they should always be in sRGB color space no matter what you’re working in. If you post a picture in linear space it will look odd to people. too dark and such. LWF is a workflow. Not an end result in itself. Depending on where you take the image when it’s done it will need gamma adjustment. And for the internet that means sRGB color space.
Things like “RWF” is really a misunderstanding because the whole idea of Linear workflow is to make input colors and textures behave realistically with lighting and such in the renderer (and compositing). It does not have anything to do with the gamma of the final image. “RWF” is basically LWF just with a slight gamma correction added at the end. Same as you would in Photoshop.
No, the curve is correct
That’s what separates “gamma” from a simple “brightness” operation. It doesn’t alter all the colors equally but “shifts” the midtones up and down while keeping the dark and white point the same. In addition to that the gamma curve affects darks a bit more then brights.
You can try this yourself in Photoshop. For a simplified example, try opening the “levels” tool and shift the mid-tones. It works in a similar way except it affects darks and whites equally.
If you open “curves” and make a curve that looks similar to in the image it will have the same effect (though not as accurately) as doing a gamma correction.
PIWF!!