Realism... this or, this... or this?

[rusty]

Hi,

 

Often I get too close to a shot and lose perspective. Here I'm going back and forth on the lighting. Your feedback would be appreciated.

 

1

 

2

 

3

 

Cheers,

Rusty

[steve392]

Number 1 is much clearer for me but 2 has a nice moody feel

[youngman]

Hi Rusty,

I'll be honest,I like all three renders that you have done.What type of mood you are after in the sequence?

 

Jay

[rusty]

Hi Rusty,

I'll be honest,I like all three renders that you have done.What type of mood you are after in the sequence?

 

Jay

 

Thanks for the kind words. Mood? Powerful, alien, terrifying... the scene before shows a guarded 6 foot thick steel door leading to this room. In scenes before this you're shown glimpses of something and you know that there is something alien and terrifying beyond the green misty window. That sort of thing.

 

What version looks closest to 'real' (or the mood I'm after)?

 

Rusty

[Ganthofer]

Hey Rusty,

 

I prefer #1, the orange tinted lights don't feel right to me, but can't suggest a better color or a reason at the moment. I can hear a very loooooow bass thumping or rumble and maybe the green mist is pulsing slightly.

 

If the whole room is somewhat foggy/hazy, then #2 gives that feeling to me, but the room would need to be darker and music/sounds would have to support it.

 

#3 just seems to monochromatic and bright. Perhaps if the darkest part of the room where pitch black then the lack of color (saturation) would fit the mood you are going for.

 

For me, it depends a lot on what is happening in the room. Do we just see the empty room or are there people (human or otherwise) in it? I think that maybe there is to much sharp detail visible, which brings me back to darkening the room more.

 

That's just my 2 cents with the hazy Big Picture I have

Glenn

[Rodney]

I like #1. It just looks more 'real'.

The other images look too washed out. (more like a painting/CG rendering)

[John Bigboote]

I like the #1 for the orange 'penumbra'(?) in the lighting...

[ypoissant]

Here is #1 with some adjustments: Lighting range expanded and gamma corrected.

[steve392]

Wow that makes a lot of differance,nice

[rusty]

Here is #1 with some adjustments: Lighting range expanded and gamma corrected.

 

Show off. :-)

 

Very nice. "Lighting range expanded"... you've added more diffuse light probably using the Levels command (or curves) or, perhaps PS's Shadow/Highlight. "Gamma"... even after reading your forum posts and tuts on this I don't understand this very well. Probably you just raised the gamma until it looked right.

 

Please elaborate on what you did so I can reproduce this in AM.

 

BTW, I used AM V14's Composite to fine tune this shot.

 

Cheers,

Rusty

[robcat2075]

I think they could all look right depending on the context. But I want to see this movie so I can find out what that glowing green mist is!

[rusty]

BTW, this set (The Listening Chamber) was modeled about two years ago by Fred Kask working from design specs I sent him. He did a great job.

 

r

[ypoissant]

Very nice. "Lighting range expanded"... you've added more diffuse light probably using the Levels command (or curves) or, perhaps PS's Shadow/Highlight. "Gamma"... even after reading your forum posts and tuts on this I don't understand this very well. Probably you just raised the gamma until it looked right.

 

Please elaborate on what you did so I can reproduce this in AM.

 

I only used Photosjop Levels command for that. I adjusted the 3 sliders. The black level (upper-left slider), the white level (upper-right slider) and the Gamma (upper-mid slider). Normally, I wouldn't have touched the black level but different objects in the scene had different ambience values on them (it seems) so when I cranked the gamma (to 2.2), some objects (the chairs among others) were pitch black while the rest of the room had a strong base ambience. So I had to adjust the black level to match the chairs. The same result could be obtained by reducing (even removing) the ambience on the surfaces. On the other hand, the white level adjustment could be avoided by increasing the lights intensities. The general light range is rather small if you take a look at the histogram so by adjusting the black and white level, it amounts to expanding the light range. As for the gamma adjustment, I simply pushed the gamma slider to 2.2.

 

Doing that with post plugins in A:M, I don`t recall and I don`t have A:M with me here. There is a gamma plugin. There is an exposure plugin that can increase or decrease the range but it cannot clip the black level. There is also a contrast and brightness plugin that can be used for range cliping and expansion but it may be a little more difficult to control.