Don’t touch the Sun
– Setting limits is the best way to understand specific concepts –
I recently received this (pleasant) image, from a user that was confused by the huge decrease of the Sun’s power. As you know, one of the rules to work methodically is “don’t touch the Sun”
Can we achieve the same result, respecting our rules?
[sc:yellowbox ]Note: It’s true that artists created great artworks without following any rule, but it’s about ‘instinct’, something you cannot replicate so easy. Here we talk about education and methods, a way to think you can always apply[sc:enddiv ]
First, think about
If by modifying the sun is the only way to achieve this scene, that would mean that a photographer would never be able to achieve this result in the real world either. As a logic consequence, we would be doing something not “Photorealistic”.
Of course, this is not true, this image has a photographic appeal, so there is definitely a way – a simple way – to achieve the same result without touching the Sun intensity: IT’S ALL ABOUT MANIPULATING TONES
Firstly, we need to approach the situation correctly,
We only have 2 important aspects to consider:
1. Sun inclination
2. Exposure (interior – from 1/50 down)
The closer the sun is to the horizon, the warmer and softer the light is and also causing blurred shadows. This is the main condition to imitate. The exposure for an interior, usually starts from 1/50, but in this case, we don’t have a big window, so our light condition is classified as “medium-weak light“, this means 1/20 should work. (You can always do little exposure adjustments in the V-Ray frame Buffer)
Placing the Sun is easy using the “Realistic” view, because you have a consistent preview of the shadows projection:
This is what I get using 1/20 as shutter speed (of course with f=8 / ISO=100)
The result has high contrasted areas and too warm tones
So, I play with the Exposure / Highlight burn / White Balance:
(*) don’t touch the sun, na na na na :)))
NOTES:
– Lowering “Highlight Burn” corresponds to lower Burn value in Rehinard, in Color mapping. Older versions of V-Ray doesn’t have Highlight Burn in the Correction Colors Area, so in this case just use Reinhard. It’s the same, of course, this way is much easier and more comfortable.
– Using Burn = 1.0 corresponds exactly to using Color Mapping “Linear”
– Using Burn = 0.0 corresponds exactly to using Color Mapping “Exponential”
– I still prefer Linear (or Rehinard 1.0) to have the possibility to control the overexposures manually
– You can blur shadows more “V-Ray Sun > Size Multiplier” – default value= 1.0
– For this test, I used Brute Force + Light Cache + Progressive, which is a configuration I’m loving to run tests in V-Ray 3, but in the end, any configuration will bring you to the same result in terms of light, as explained in Lesson#1-B
FINAL IMAGE / Comparison
I converted the images into black/white to focus mainly on the light (not on the chromatics)
Any other small difference can be adjusted by working on the tones in Photoshop or similar software.
Conclusion
Of course, you can do what you want with your scenes, but educationally speaking, if you touch the Sun, it is clear that you’re not aware and you’re not mastering the exposure fundamental for photographic renders. That’s why I’m forcing you into some limits, in order to let you comprehend exposure in depth.
FILES
Download here my ambient and have fun:
- DNA – Don’t touch the Sun
for 3ds Max 2013 or superiors