Balance the density of information

I would like to share with you this very important aspect to choose the right background.

I don’t know if this image was realized with an HDRI map or not, but in any case, it doesn’t matter: Don’t buy what the PC sells. Never.

What we can observe in the IMG 1 is that the background has a density information too much different from the render. The clouds are too big, it looks like a zoom into the clouds:

This inconsistency creates a subtle fake effect: it seems that the two parts (render and background) are coming from two different parts. It’s true of course, we are mixing a 3d model with a back ground. Anyway, we need to find the way to hide this.

Starting from this analysis, what we need here is a background that has – more or less – the same INFORMATION DENSITY.

To solve the problem I replaced the background with a new one that respects this rule:

In this second version, you can feel that everything is part of the same environment, and this happens because of the more uniform amount of details. You perceive now a better harmony in the whole image. Many other considerations can be done about this, but few times the users pay attention to this point.

Here is evident how the uniform density of information makes the IMG 2 more consistent:

Abstracting images can help to look at the density only, and not at the render itself: below you can see the images filtered and abstracted, and here it’s evident how the 2° version looks more uniform – so more effective – than the other.

I hope you like this analysis
Render used for the explanation, by Ashirov Aqil

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Ciro Sannino
Author & V-Ray Mentor
Creator of the 5SRW Approach