Having trouble with HDRI's - getting washed out skies

jackwatson

Hey guys,

I've recently bought some HDRIs from Peter Guthrie, and have started using them in place of the vray GI and Background system. One thing I repeatedly have trouble with is the exposure of the skies when rendering - they almost always look pale and faded.

Even with a very low burn value in Reinhard colour mapping of 0.05, and a high shutter speed on the physical camera 100 the sky is very washed out - and these settings tend to make the rest of the scene quite dark.

I was just wondering if anyone can suggest other settings to tinker with, or maybe a box I need to check/uncheck to bring the colour and detail back to the sky.

Thanks

screen

massimo

Sorry I know nothing about Vray but you can do a search on Peter's blog.
Perhaps here (scroll down the page) is something that could be useful for you. I use them with Thea and an normally I pull down the intensity between 0,1-0,3 because the exposure/intensity of them is quite high.

valerostudio

Which Gunthrie HDRI are you using? I do find that if you set the Gamma to .85 and use an intensity of 1, you should be fine. Also, make sure that your GI and BG are turned off when using the dome light, unless your intent is to mix the dome with the VRay Sun.

I do like Peter's HDRIs, but I have to say that I have great results with VizPeople Vol 2 HDRI's. Very sharp shadows and great lighting.

Page Not Found - Viz-People

Viz-People (www.viz-people.com)

jackwatson

Hey guys,

Thanks for the pointers, and for the link. I'm not on my computer at the moment, but for that scene I was using something like Sun no clouds 1103 I think it was called.

I have GI and BG switched off and am only using GI... I think some of the problem comes when I use artificial lights, as I don't have much experience in setting the power of them - so sometimes the camera settings I use are incorrect to compensate for darkness. Still got a lot to learn!

valerostudio

Turn off GI (skylight) - All you need is the domelight. That's probably the issue.

jackwatson

Ahh my bad, I meant to type "I have GI and BG switched off and am only using HDRI dome"... I think the bright skies are in some cases the realistic effect with these camera settings... must learn to tweak them better and maybe start experimenting with the Aperture F value.

Thanks again for the tip though, I'm sure if other people are checking in on this thread it could help them also