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HDRI - Help with set up.

jontaylor99jontaylor99 Posts: 216
in Technical Help (nuts n bolts)

Hello guys....

Can anyone tell me please, is there a particular method for setting up a HDRI scene ?

I've just recently downloaded a few but so far I'm not having much luck with any of them, some of the problems I'm getting are - light isn't strong enough and all my renders are coming out too dark. I've tried messing around with intensity and stuff but then I seem to get a serious loss in picture quality and the image appears kind of faded or blurry. I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to leave the settings to DAZ default or whether I have have to alter settings according to each individual HDRI.... Any advice at all will be most welcome.

 

Thanks...

Comments

  • HylasHylas Posts: 5,070

    I'm not an expert, but if your scene is too dark, then increasing environment intesity should normally work...

    Maybe post some examples?

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 102,716

    Is the scene enclosed - in a room, in an environment enclosed by a sky dome? Are you using the Iray verion (usually tagged as Render Settings)?

  • MelissaGTMelissaGT Posts: 2,611

    You can play around with the environmental intensity, but it also depends on the HDRI you are using. Are they from the marketplace, or from another site? If the latter, are they in the proper 32bit .hdr format? You can download spherical panormas from places like Pixabay (or even pay for ones on Adobe Stock) that are 8bit .jpg...those need some work in Photoshop before they can really be of use to use as HDRI.

  • jontaylor99jontaylor99 Posts: 216
    melissastjames said:

    You can play around with the environmental intensity, but it also depends on the HDRI you are using. Are they from the marketplace, or from another site? If the latter, are they in the proper 32bit .hdr format? You can download spherical panormas from places like Pixabay (or even pay for ones on Adobe Stock) that are 8bit .jpg...those need some work in Photoshop before they can really be of use to use as HDRI.

    Thanks Melissa (and Richard & Hylas of course). The ones I'm trying to use are what I've downloaded from 'HDRI Heaven' but I'm not really sure if they're 32bit or 16 . I don't think it said which they are.

    Richard - I'm trying both indoor and outdoor environments but I seem to be having similar problems with both and if I turn up the intensity to a point where the lighting is better the background image goes all kind of faded and blured.

  • FishtalesFishtales Posts: 6,162
    edited June 2019

    Are you using the right image? It should be the ones ending in .hdr or .exr.

    Post edited by Fishtales on
  • AndySAndyS Posts: 1,438
    Fishtales said:

    Are you using the right image?

    A valid question. And there's an important very different aspect:
    There are a lot of so called "HDRI" out on the web. But they suffer the necessary EV range (hope this is the correct terminus technicus). So iRay expects a very high brightness difference between the environment (clouds, landscape) and the highlight (the sun for example).

    There are other render engines which work with these, but iRay has special needs.

  • jontaylor99jontaylor99 Posts: 216
    Fishtales said:

    Are you using the right image? It should be the ones ending in .hdr or .exr.

    I'm loading the '.hdr' file to enviroments map, there are also 'backplates' with some of these downloads, but I've done nothing with those yet.

     

  • FishtalesFishtales Posts: 6,162

    To adjust the lighting I would try changing the Tone Mapping settings. I have used a few images from HDRI Heaven and they work fine for me. They are 16K images so they give good backgrounds too.

  • jontaylor99jontaylor99 Posts: 216
    Fishtales said:

    To adjust the lighting I would try changing the Tone Mapping settings. I have used a few images from HDRI Heaven and they work fine for me. They are 16K images so they give good backgrounds too.

    Thanks, I'll try that suggestion next.

     

  • fastbike1fastbike1 Posts: 4,078

    Bear in mind that not all of the HDRIs available on the internet are really suitable for rendering. Many do not have anywhere near enough dynamic range to render properly.

  • JonnyRayJonnyRay Posts: 1,744

    HDRI Haven images are usually good quality (proper bit depth and exposure ranges). However you may need to fiddle with the Environment and Tone Mapping sections to get the most out of them. If it just basically feels "too dark", try tweaking the Exposure value on Tone Mapping. 

    I also typically change the Highlights and Shadows settings down to zero and also adjust the Gamma value to 1.6. This gives me a wider range from bright to dark, but can sometimes mean I need to do exposure and contrast adjustments after the fact using GIMP or some other photo editor.

  • jontaylor99jontaylor99 Posts: 216

    OK thank you all very much. Some useful information here, I've been playing around with some of the settings you guys have suggested and I have to say, my renders are now starting to look much better with these HDRI's.

    Some of them are still losing 'sharpness' to the image but I'm putting that down to the actual image itself. Overall I'm much happier trying to use these now than I was.

     

    Thank you to all who who have contributed here, it's been a big help.

  • wscottartwscottart Posts: 442

    exr files? I see those all over adobestock, I will have to give one a try.

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