Rendering Tip - Use Camera Lights

Al Hart

By using lights attached to the camera, you can:

*Add illumination which moves with the camera.
*Make it easy to render several views of a model without having to add additional lights for each view.
*Insure that the objects you are focusing on are well illuminated.

Scene rendered with lights attached to the camera.

It is often very difficult to place enough lights in your drawing to be fully realistic. Ambient light settings help with this, but often produce a flat effect. By placing movable lights, attached to the camera you can add effective illumination and highlighting which will be used for all views.

Lights which move with your camera make it easier to illuminate scenes with out having to place lights for every view angle you may want to use.
[Edit: These can be multiple lights attached to the camera - but they can be offset as far as desired - left and right, up and down.]

You can, and should, add lights to your scene - especially lights which will appear in the rendered image. However, a couple of lights placed near the camera will provide good illumination for the rest of the scene.

Align Lights before Rendering

Some rendering packages will automatically align the lights to the view when you render. Also, you can use the Film and Stage Plugin which will snap a camera to a view. If you want to do align lights with a single plugin, we have placed an "align camera_lights" plugin on the SketchUcation Forum. See this thread: Camera Lights.

For more information on how to create Camera Lights and use the plugin, see this article on the Render Plus Web Site: Camera Lights

For more of out Rendering Tips, See: Rendering Tips

kwistenbiebel

I would be careful with the use of a light at the position of the camera, unless you want to go for a cheap camera flash effect.
Speaking for myself, I never place a light directly behind the camera, because it can kill all the shadow effects.
Lights coming from the sides (diagonal) can provide more interesting shadows on floors and objects, creating a sense of depth.

Some time ago, when Maxwell got popular and computers were slow, the use of a camera light often was suggested to clear up the noise faster.
It worked as it provided more direct light into the scene but it often creates poor lighting conditions.

Al Hart

@kwistenbiebel said:

Lights coming from the sides (diagonal) can provide more interesting shadows on floors and objects, creating a sense of depth.

Good point!

The camera alignment tools align a component, so all you have to do is offset the lights horizontally and vertically from the axis of the component.

Also, you could use an illuminated surface for a wider, softer lighting effect.

However, I feel that the diagonal placement, and also, non-symmetrical, will often be best.

[Edit: I need to modify the tip to make it clear that I am referring to multiple lights attached to the camera - but they can be offset as far as desired - left and right, up and down.]

brodie

I'd agree that it's useful in some situations, precisely for the reason mentioned above. It can give the rendering a point and shoot camera feel. I'd look at it much like adding abberation or noise to a rendering. Sometimes you have to make it less perfect to look real. I used it on one of my recent interior renderings w/ a pretty decent result, I think. I'd never use it as a sole light source, but it can be an interesting addition to the overall lighting of a scene. In my case, Maxwell's multilight feature was extremely useful. I was able to have the "flash" light along w/ all my other lights and find just the right balance between all of them so that I got good shadows and reflection along w/ the flash affect.

-Brodie

Al Hart

I have received some negative comments about this post like:

@unknownuser said:

It'd be really useful if you were trying to recreate Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield or similar...

Just kidding - I'm sure it may come in handy at some point and will try it out!

@unknownuser said:

his is a terrible idea. By associating the position of the lights with the camera instead of the scene you would make your lighting arbitrary and probably ugly. Learn to light the scene correctly - there is no shortage of information on the subject out there.

and

@unknownuser said:

everything in the scene needs to be addressed separately in order for your scene to be successfully lit.

I still think that some scenes, especially by beginning (or perhaps lackadaisical) renderers, can be easily improved with some camera oriented lighting. But maybe the is a lot to be said for learning how to position lights well.