Artificial Lights | Restaurant Area
How I create my Dining Restaurant with V-Ray
by Deryan Roque
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First of all, I would like to give thanks to Learnvray team for giving me a great opportunity to share some of my knowledge how I created my scene “Elegant Dining”.
In this scene, I’ll focus in 1 key point and its Light Balance using Real Photography image as reference.
1) Lighting Reference – The Fig. 1 is my Light reference. I love collecting and saving Real photography of Architectural images for lighting reference and design. After a couple of hours browsing my collection, I selected the photo of Arch. Ayla De Guzman that I think it will best lighting for my scene. Then I contacted her to ask permission to use her photograph and she gave me a permission.
Fig.1
I remember Ciro Sannino said in one of his lesson but not in exact word “Don’t trust your mind, use real photo images as your reference”, since then I always use reference photo for my Archviz.
2) Light Balance
Primary Light – Droplight
Secondary Light – HDRI in Vray Dome Light for ambience lighting and background
Accent Light – Candle Light
In Fig. 2 (A, B and C) You can see my Lighting hierarchy. The one most important thing in realistic photography render that Ciro Sannino taught us is how to create professional light hierarchies.
Fig.2A
Fig. 2B
Fig. 2C
In Fig. 2.2-2.3 I more often switching On and Off between Override material and Real output render.
Mostly, Framing or Camera settings is a first workflow of 5SRW Method. I’ll share this because my light balance will be incomplete if I don’t mention this. Adjusting shutter speed also helps me to achieve my desire global illumination. Ciro Sannino said in the lessons if you need to adjust brightness “Don’t Break your Lighting Hierarchy you can adjust your camera exposure”
Fig. 2.2
After I place all my lighting it’s time to test render. In 3dsmax, file tab > view image file I imported directly my reference photo inside of 3dsmax. I place them side to side, the VFB and Reference photo to easily get result of my light balance.
Fig. 2.3
I also adjusted my VFB and Lens Effect setting (Fig. 2.4). Note: Make sure your color mapping was set to Linear or Reinhard for Lens Effect to be seen, any exponential color mapping will no effect. After an hour of testing I finally get nearly match my scene render and reference photo for global illumination, don’t be “Perfectionist” in trying to make matching photo as Ciro said in our lesson “Golden Light lesson”.
Fig. 2.4
Now its time to render. In V-Ray NEXT I can simply use the default settings, then I save it on PNG.
In Photoshop I’ll explain the four most important layer that contribute also in my lighting matching, the rest are just my personal correction like people layer, reflection layer, vines correction layer, floor highlights layer, girl head highlights layer, vignette layer.
1st Layer Sharpness – This Layer gives some additional detail on image but be careful to overdo it ‘cause it will become sharp all on your image.
Duplicate first the original layer (Ctrl+J) and convert to smart object. In filter tab >Sharpen > Unsharpmask, amount: 90% radius:1. After that, select your white mask in layer (smart filter) and turn it to black (see Fig. 3.0) 1st layer, to cancel the unsharpmask filter for the meantime, then select your brush in 50% opacity and white paint color and careful to paint the image you like to enhance sharpness.
This is my first time to use LUT in my post processing. All LUT I used are default in Photoshop CC 2019.
2nd Layer– Color lookup 1 LUT (see Fig. 3.0) – Crisp_Warm.look I used this LUT see Fig. 3.3, It gives some contrast to my warm light.
3rd Layer– Color lookup 2 LUT (see Fig. 3.0) – TealOrangePlusContrast.3DL I used this LUT see Fig. 3.4, It gives some contrast to my green color.
4th Layer– Curves (see Fig. 3.0) – I decided to add curves just to add a little bit of brightness.
Done!
Thank you very much for giving a time to read my tutorial on How I achieve my Lighting using a Reference Image. If you have any question you can message me on my facebook or you can email me atderyan.roque.d@gmail.com.
Thank you!
Extra shots, created working on the typical light hierarchy for night renders:
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Author: Deryan Roque | V-Ray for 3ds Max | Method & Techniques: 5SRW