Just a few corrections/additions.

• IDL = Indirect Diffuse Lighting - Note: there is no specular component.

• IDL isn't just bounced light, it also covers object based lighting (from P8 up), such as using an environment sphere with an ambient material.

• Quote JoePublic -

"Conclusion:

1. For outside renders, IDL only makes shadows darker. Any "color bleed" isn't noticeable.

(Unless you do "neon lights at night" type renders.)"

I'm a little confused at this, and I may be wrong, but in my tests IDL only lightens shadows by bouncing the diffuse component of ordinary lights.

• Since IDL only deals with the diffuse component of adding light to a scene, it may be necessary to add extra specular only lights (i.e. lights with the diffuse colour set to black). This is particularly the case when using an environment sphere as a primary light source, with the exception that in P9/PP2012 we can now use faster blurred reflections in combination with the fresnel node (although this isn't perfect or fully controllable). This all adds to render time though, and issues can arise with occlusion artifacts from near/intersecting geometry.

To add to the general consensus, there is no one 'correct' way to light a scene although IMO for realism some are better than others.

It is important to learn and understand the concepts of lighting a scene in 3d and specifically with the systems included in any given app. There are still workarounds that we need to employ in cetain circumstances, and you'll only understand what and when by learning and experimenting.

 

PoserPro2014(Sr4), Win7 x64, display units set to inches.

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