Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=1184851

Posted my first real attempt at an image in Carrara and the feedback so far has mentioned the shadows being "washed out". Just wondering if one of you gurus can have a look and tell me what I may be doing wrong. I have to say that I am very impressed with Carrara so far and i'm looking forward to see what else it can do, as well as considering not using the Firefly Renderer again in Poser 6

I'm sure there will be some people who disagree with me on this, but I rarely use raytraced shadows for interior scenes. My advice would be to try the render again with a few of your lights set to shadow buffer instead. It also looks like you have quite a few lights coming from different directions. Maybe try turning off the shadows for some of the lights. The nice thing about C5 is that you can make as many test renders as you want without worrying about it getting stuck.

I agree, you have too many conflicting light sources overlapping. That's what is causing some of your shadows to be lightened up. You can also try reducing the angular and range falloff of some of the lights. Personally I almost never use shadow buffer, the shadows are too vague for my taste. Soft raytraced shadows can take longer, but not so much on interiors where the light radius can be set fairly low, but you have more control. I think you should try varying the strength of different lights, too.

It also looks like you have quite a few lights coming from different directions. Yes - there is actually a light on each of the flame sources, I was trying to get the shadow effect that would come from many flames, along with a spot behind the window and an anything glows on the gate ligts. So I take it you are suggesting perhaps turning off shadows on some of the flame sources? Or would I be better of reducing the range? Sorry if I sound like I'm asking heaps of questions......

Adjusting the range is always a good place to start. Using Anything Glows for the flames and lights around the gate is a good idea too, jujst mess with the settings so the contrast between light and shadow is a bit softer. The center piece of the Dial Home Device would look cool if it were glowing too. Maybe just adding a glow channel would be enough. My other suggestion would be to change the ambient light for the scene to a dark blue-that might really bring out all of the indivdual light sources even more. Remember, as long as YOU'RE happy with it! (Keep asking questions-that's how we all learn)

Hi, tastiger. As I was the one who made the comment about shadows being 'washed out' it's only fair I try and give you some tips :-)

I spend absolutely ages on lighting. I tweak, remove lights, add lights, change the colours and brighness, turnshadows on and off, etc, etc

Lighting is a very large part of how your final render looks. Changing the lighting can seriously alter how your textures look too. When you have assembled your scene try to think a bit like a photographer. If a shadow is too dark and hiding detail you want to keep then add a light, turn off shadows for that light and gently bring up the brightness until you can see what you want.

A mistake I used to make was trying to make it 'real'. In other words only use the lights that would be there in reality, just the sun for an outdoor scene for example. Now, I try to use lighting to make the mood of my picture work for my intention. I also turn off ambient light unless I really need it.

Learn to look at your work and see what is not working. This was the biggest thing I learnt from Art College. How to see what was not right with my work and keep working to realise the vision in my head.

But, as it411 said, you have to be happy with it. It's what you want to do as an artist that counts. If you like what you have done and someone comments feel free not to change anything. If you agree with the comments then you might want to try again.

Oh and one last thing, every picture is different. What worked for one doesn't always work for another :-)

Hope this helps and keep posting.

Regards
Tony

Simple ideas are similar to previous suggestions you can try. 1.) Use the range falloff. 2.) Use the soft shadows option. Try those things and see if you like it. -Kix

I agree with what has been said. The dark areas just clash w/ all that strong layered light it doesn't really look right.I would also mention that C5 has the selective lighting option which is invaluable.

Not only is every image different (or scene) but every camera angle is different too, so what may be good lighting from one camera angle can suddenly and dramatically turn bad from another. Lighting has always been my nemesis, i'm too impatient to get it right, but I'm trying. :) good tips here.

I turn ambient lighting for my scenes down to 0% first. Then I start adding lights using 25-100% brightness until stuff looks good. Then I turn on soft shadows using 1500 inches. Also check the gamma setting for your monitor to make sure that we all see the same render that you see. If your monitor's brightness is cranked down real low, then we'll just see a washed out bright render from you. No one I know adjusts their monitor to view other people's renders as far as I know. :)