Like probably most Poser users, I am always searching for or trying to create really great lighting and spend way too much time re-rendering the same scene over and over to get the best lighting so I am asking your opinion on this. I also thought that this could potentially be a great go-to spot for people to search through when trying to find the perfect light for their scene. So I am asking you this...

What are your favorite lights for:

1. Realism

2. Dramatic directional lighting with great shadow effects

3. Portrait lights, for both realism and dramatic lighting 

4. Full scene, daylight, nightime

5. Anything else

Please feel free to post sample renders, which specific light out of a set you used and character/scene/prop used (because lighting can look very different on different skin or textures of course.) Also posting your render settings would be great. 

Vendors, especially, feel free to post samples of your light products or other products using your or others' lights. If you just created a new character, it would be great to see renders with various lights so we can see what you used for promos, what other lights you like for your product that are maybe more dramatic than the ones you used in your promos.

If anyone would like to share their own lights as a freebie, even better! :D

Thanks!

Alicia aka Wonderland

Mmmm

I dont have favorite lights, lightning depend of the scene and what you want in the final render.

The only thing you need to know is never lights of promos, shaders are always :b_upset:

Wow, OK, I still don't understand how you did that without lights. But I really like the first one.  What is in that front circle? What is an exr map? What kind of geometry"? I've been using Poser since Poser 3 and still so much I don't know... 

Quote - For exemple, a fast portrait

That is really nice, I'd like to learn to light a scene that way...

Knickers

I use IDL lights exclusively.

No light sets needed. 

Indoor and outdoor scenery: IDL + skydome, ONE infinite light for sun (moon), + optional lightbulbs (spot/point) where one should normally use lanterns, lamps and flash

In studio portraits: 5- or even 9-(spot)light rigs to create softboxes (or render in Reality / LuxRender or Octane, or Vue using area lights)

Tips:

when you've issues with handling light levels, you'd better render in separate passes and adjust lighting in post. Might require PoserPro in some cases. See my tutorials on render passes, light handling etc in http://www.book.artbeeweb.nl/?book=poser-rendering

You also might benefit from rendering with Reality/LuxRender, and master handling light-groups in Lux so you can adjust lighting levels in post / at rendering there as well. Recommended in combination with IDL and Realism.

If it looks too dark I make the light brighter.  If it looks too bright I make the light darker.  If I want more light on one side I move the light toward that side.

Quote - I use IDL lights exclusively.

No light sets needed. 

Then you will not be able to render a tube that uses bump that simulates gold. Show me...

Horses for courses: IDL when you can, ligts otherwise

For me it depends on what I am doing. Most of the time, I delete the default lighting and use BB's envirosphere and IDL. If I need specific lighting, I add the lights and change them as I need.

And I turn down the IDL intensity with Dimension3D's script, usually operating it around 50-60% depending on the scene.

I don't use light sets.

Quote -
Then you will not be able to render a tube that uses bump that simulates gold. Show me...

What do you mean ?

Not sure either what they mean. I've seen BB demo things with just the diffuse light from his EnvSphere. I've never managed to master the diffuse only render technique. Occassionally I'll still give it a try, but always end up adding a specular only infinite to the scene. But I wouldn't mind seeing continued discussion of this type of render.

Quote - I had to go have my supper, so after a bit more work in the mat room,  this is more what I was after.  Same settings as above...

Can I see a screen shot of your material room?

I'm not at my Poser machine, Rockket, but it's simply Snarly's EZ Metal Gold with the weave map plugged into bump...

http://www.snarlygribbly.org/3d/forum/viewforum.php?f=10

Oh, ok. I have his EZ metals and I use them a lot. I haven't tried to render them without lights yet. I may give that a shot later on. I am working on a motorcycle wheel for the nth time and I didn't like the shader I put on it the first time around.

'Digital Lighting and Rendering' 3rd edition by Jeremy Birn, a lighting director at Pixar. He deals with basic ideas, and the book is pretty program neutral....and he specifies when it isn't. 

Ditto.  I also highly recommend the book to both experienced and novice individuals seeking to expand their knowledge and understanding of digital lighting.

Say more.

Is this what you want?

If you want smoother reflections and are willing to spend the time, increase the Reflect node quality to .45, .7, or 1.

Quote -  What do you mean? 

il veut voir comment simuler la spécularité avec la lumière indirecte.

so that one gets gold that glisters.

Quote - Second (same setup - different diffuse_value and IOR)

If you want smoother reflections and are willing to spend the time, increase the Reflect node quality to .45, .7, or 1.

Awesome! Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm still confused about the "no lights" rendering... You just use indirect lighting? When I tried indirect lighting, I used it with lights, the render took forever and there were black artifacts everywhere. Are you supposed to use it alone? I hate experimenting with something that takes hours to render and then be disppointed... Has anyone used Fugazi's tutorial? I'm thinking I definitely need a tutorial...  (the auto correct on my iPad just changed Fugazi into "Fugthing." I'm still laughing about that--is that actually a word? LOL literally.)

Yes

Quote - When I tried indirect lighting, I used it with lights, the render took forever and there were black artifacts everywhere.

There's a reason that realistic renderings take a long time and require fast computers. There's a reason that, for two decades, CG artists only used tricks and hacks and gross approximations to ambient lighting. It's a huge amount of calculation.

If you adjust the settings to get a one-minute render, you will get crap.

LuxRender produces outstanding results partly because it has little to no approximations and partly because people let it render for 24 hours or more.

I learned the settings and techniques that work for IDL by rendering small and rendering simple stuff thousands of times.

This render took about 20 minutes. Not exactly "forever". I did not have to experiment with the lighting because I've used this HRDI and the settings here hundreds of times.

wonder, I love yer avatar of girl kissing E.T.!   in re: slow IDL renders, they speeded it up alot in recent version, hence one can do IDL no-lites renders really fast now.  however, my favourite set-up is bill's envsphere, 1 inf.lite (sun) and one point lite (fill).   also speeds  up if scene  fully enclosed AFAIK.  here's IDL render w/ above lites; ~ 2 hr.