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A way to tone down an over-saturated HDRI?

Blind OwlBlind Owl Posts: 504
edited January 2018 in Technical Help (nuts n bolts)

I picked up a couple of Mec4D's HDRIs in yesterday's Flash Sale thinking that the promo pics were deliberately oversaturated for effect. On loading them into DS and having a look around, I see that they really are that saturated. 'Way too much for my liking, anyway, especially the foliage.

Of course, turning down the environment map or the intensity (or reducing saturation in the Tone Mapping tab) will also affect whatever figures or props I have loaded into the scene.

Is there some other control or widget I'm unaware of that will reduce the environment saturation and nothing else? If not, I'll probably be returning these, though I've been eyeballing them for a long time & jumped all over the 60% off sale.

Post edited by Blind Owl on

Comments

  • davegvdavegv Posts: 164

    There are any number of HDRI editors available, Just Google for them, a number of them are free. I use Photoshop CC 2017 It handles/reads/edits HDRI and EXR files well. Daz has limited controls over the hdri  - You can use the Gamma adjustment in the editor, or sometimes the Tone Mapping in the render settings tab.

  • Blind OwlBlind Owl Posts: 504
    edited January 2018

    Thanks, davegv, but I'm not prepared to edit HDRIs to compensate for what I consider downright garish color, and it seems that any adjustments I could make in DS will affect scene elements that I don't want affected. Sure, I could render the elements separately and combine them with a suitably toned-down environment, but that shouldn't be any more necessary (it seems to me) than editing the HDRI.

    Oh well. My mistake, I guess, for thinking the promo renders were suggestive rather than literal. frown

    Post edited by Blind Owl on
  • davegvdavegv Posts: 164
    edited January 2018

    Hi again BlindOwl, I am just curious which set of Mec4D's HDRIs you are unhappy with? I have I think 3 or 4 of his sets and I'd like to look at which ones you are referring to. I did a test with the "Abandoned Industrial Set (No 3 "Low Exposure") and I have attached side by side renders from Daz3d and then I loaded the same HDRI into Keyshot as I often share my HDRI's between the two programs. The render in Daz is MUCH to saturated and overexposed ( I made NO adjustments whatsoever in either program ) but in Keyshot they look entirely different ( and much, much better )  So, I am not sure what that means, except I would agree they look really crappy in Daz ???? even trying to make some adjustments in Daz I couldn't get close to the same as it displays in Keyshot ( Great rendering program by the way ) I have exported object file sets from daz and render them in Keyshot and while it is not as fast as IRay ( It is strictly a CPU renderer and with my i7-6850k 6 Core it is not slow..) It does really nice rendering and is super easy to use. Anyway, I don't want to get to far off topic just wanted to give you some insight.. 

    Oh and I like your Tom Robbins quote: "It's never too late to have a happy childhood.":  I am a 62 yr old retired Mechanical "Cad" Designer that has had multiple happy childhoods!

    EDIT: I found if I turn down the render Intensity all the way to .05  and the enviroment map at 2.0 in Daz It will look almost like the keyshot render.. Render 3 example added..

    daz hdri test render 1.png
    1920 x 1080 - 4M
    Keyshot7 hdri test render 1.jpg
    1773 x 997 - 698K
    daz hdri reemder test 2 Enviro intensity @.05 enviro map @2.0.png
    1920 x 1080 - 2M
    Post edited by davegv on
  • fastbike1fastbike1 Posts: 4,078

    Mec4D is a "her". Are you folks using the presets that come with the HDRIs?

    @davegv

    You say you used "No 3 "Low Exposure". Seems to me that the result would be a clue that a setting was off from thePA's intention.

  • Blind OwlBlind Owl Posts: 504
    edited January 2018

    I bought Gardens Vol. 1 and Central Park. The attached renders illustrate the problem: #! was done using the default settings, #2 with Environment Intensity turned down to 50%, #3 with Intensity and Saturation turned down to 80%. Besides reducing the available light, turning down Environment and Saturation settings darkens the car (and the car interior, supposing it had a tiny driver that I wanted to show).

    re: Tom Robbins's words of wisdom, I've tried to live by them since I retired 8 1/2 years ago at age 58 (I was a surveyor on Canada's Wet Coast). Must be on my 4th or 5th childhood by now. Can't keep track any more...

    On the subject of HDRIs, you might want to check out https://hdrihaven.com/ if you haven't already. They're free, they're super high quality--up to 16K--and Greg Zaal seems like a really square guy who deserves all the support he gets, including mine.

    Cheers, eh? (as we're alleged to say in Canadawink).

    Central Pk 1 .jpg
    1920 x 1080 - 2M
    Central Pk 2.jpg
    1920 x 1080 - 1M
    Central Pk 3.jpg
    1920 x 1080 - 1M
    Post edited by Blind Owl on
  • davegvdavegv Posts: 164
    edited January 2018

    @fastbike 1 :  No 3 "Low Exposure" is a preset FYI

    @ Blind Owl : Cheers 

    Post edited by davegv on
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