Vray Shadow:Area shadow:Dimming Light Intensity

V-Ray V-Ray for 3ds Max General
1

I am using photometric lights with IES data to light my scene. When I add area shadows to the vray shadow, I’m noticing a dimming of the overall lighting in the scene.

Is this the correct behaviour?

2

It is possible that the shadow “area” is too big and intersects objects around the light sources, causing unnecessary shadowing. Try to reduce the size of the shadow area and see if it helps.

Best regards,
Vlado

3

ah, yes. I was meaning to ask this in my post actually! That’ll be the problem then.

Thanks again Vlado.