Better clarity in render- help appreciated!

sunnyjei

I have this image (attached) currently rendering at 53% 217 iterations and it is greater than 2,500 x 2,500 there is still a lot of noise and the first render I did that went for over 7 hours (different hair but pretty much the same) came out really noisy too. I'm not sure what to do to get it to be noise free or have better clarity. I set the render quality to 5 the convergence (I think that was what it was called) to 98% and I turned off the time limit. Not sure what I'm doing wrong at this point or what I can do to improve the clarity....

fastbike1

The quality setting will make it run much longer and IME won't make the run "better". Noise is almost always due to insufficient lighting. for Iray's purposes. also fyi, closeups will tend to run a fair bit longer than 3/4 or full body renders.

I also wouldn't use clarity to describe your issue. To me, clarity impiles fuzzy, blurry or similar. Your issue seems to be strictly noise.As a start try increasing the Render Settings>Environment>Environment Map slide to 1.5 or 2 and see if that helps.

sunnyjei

Hi @Fastbike1- thanks. Unfortunately it's already set at 2 and it's actually a full body shot of both just moved in to show the noise. Mainly what I meant by 'clarity' is my renders vs say this one: maybe not SFW-bikini pic

Mine always tend to come out looking like gaussian blur had been set to a small but noticable number. I'll try adjust the light more but making it brighter seems to blow out the whites and increasing the exposure just seems to darken it back. T_T

This is the iray viewport but the final render at 50%ish looked similar and the iterations weren't increasing so I assumed the final would be similar like the last that took 5+hours to still look rough.

nemesis10

Try changing the convergence time and filtering from Gausian 1.5 to Mitchell 1

kenshaw011267

You have several options to get less noise in a render.

1)  Let the render run longer to get more converged pixels. If the fully converged image at your current settings took 7 hours this may not be viable.

2) Increase the lighting.

3) Mess with the filtering.

sunnyjei

Thanks all- going to take everyone's advice and give it a go a bit later :)

fastbike1

@sunnyjei

Here is an example of my results at Render Quality 1, 95% https://www.daz3d.com/gallery/#images/880101/

sunnyjei

fastbike1 said:

@sunnyjei

Here is an example of my results at Render Quality 1, 95% https://www.daz3d.com/gallery/#images/880101/

@fastbike1 :) alrighty you've just made a very strong case for moving render quality back down along with the percent especially since I dont really do really close portraits which I'm assuming would benefit the most from upping those two values.

chris-2599934

sunnyjei said:

 I'll try adjust the light more but making it brighter seems to blow out the whites and increasing the exposure just seems to darken it back. T_T

Iray likes lots of light, so increasing the lighting to give you more, and then increasing the EV to darken down the final result can actually make the rendering faster/less noisy even if the end result is the same.

fastbike1

@sunnyjei "you've just made a very strong case for moving render quality back down "

Feel free to look through my gallery. I should have saved most/all of the scenes. If you like some in particulaer, PM me and I'll load the scenes and give you the exact settings. I usually include the props/lighting/figures in the gallery but not specific poses/lights/ etc.

Richard Haseltine

chris-2599934 said:

sunnyjei said:

 I'll try adjust the light more but making it brighter seems to blow out the whites and increasing the exposure just seems to darken it back. T_T

Iray likes lots of light, so increasing the lighting to give you more, and then increasing the EV to darken down the final result can actually make the rendering faster/less noisy even if the end result is the same.

Most importantly, Iray likes lots of direct light - trning the intensity up on the lights but relying on bounces to get light into soem areas will still be slow to converge, adding additonal fill lights will help even if they are not that bright.

sunnyjei

Thanks all! I think it definitely looks better but still getting there. Some of the advice given I haven't had a chance to implement but will definitely soon. I see you all recommending more light. How does that work out for night/dark but still clear scenes? I would love to do some more night shots but not looking for it to look like Game of Thrones did during the night battle scene when I didn't know what was happening

Doc Acme

Ya, you've definitely made a jump there. You could turn of the Headlamp & place an area light above the camera instead.

Night doesn't necessarily mean dark though.  Think Contrast, Back lighting, Silhouetting, etc.  Motivated lighting of course light like flashlights & lanterns. Less fill but not none. You can mix HDR with regular lights of course.  Add tiny eye catch lights for your characters.

I've a friend on another forum that does a lot of interior architechural work.  As he renders to EXR, he generally lights much brighter &  then brings that all back down in post. That eliminates noise in the shadow areas plus he ends up not using/needing Radiosity enabled and that render hit.

 

sunnyjei

Doc Acme said:

Ya, you've definitely made a jump there. You could turn of the Headlamp & place an area light above the camera instead.

Night doesn't necessarily mean dark though.  Think Contrast, Back lighting, Silhouetting, etc.  Motivated lighting of course light like flashlights & lanterns. Less fill but not none. You can mix HDR with regular lights of course.  Add tiny eye catch lights for your characters.

I've a friend on another forum that does a lot of interior architechural work.  As he renders to EXR, he generally lights much brighter &  then brings that all back down in post. That eliminates noise in the shadow areas plus he ends up not using/needing Radiosity enabled and that render hit.

Thanks @DocAcme I'll have to try that- not sure what EXR is but I'll go google it. I feel like Photoshop is my crutch/backup fixer but glad to have it as I figure out how to work Daz Studio :)

 

dawnblade

Here is a day to night lighting tutorial thread.

sunnyjei

dawnblade said:

Here is a day to night lighting tutorial thread.

That's genius! Thanks :D

fastbike1

@sunnyjei "How does that work out for night/dark but still clear scenes"

You can also use tone mapping to get the look you want. Use the exposure setting. Tone mapping doesn't add or remove light from Iray's perspective just changes the look. Tonemapping occurs later in the rendering cycle.

sunnyjei

fastbike1 said:

@sunnyjei "How does that work out for night/dark but still clear scenes"

You can also use tone mapping to get the look you want. Use the exposure setting. Tone mapping doesn't add or remove light from Iray's perspective just changes the look. Tonemapping occurs later in the rendering cycle.

Cool- I'm assuming then this doesnt show up in the iray viewprt preview.

dawnblade

sunnyjei said:

fastbike1 said:

@sunnyjei "How does that work out for night/dark but still clear scenes"

You can also use tone mapping to get the look you want. Use the exposure setting. Tone mapping doesn't add or remove light from Iray's perspective just changes the look. Tonemapping occurs later in the rendering cycle.

Cool- I'm assuming then this doesnt show up in the iray viewprt preview.

Yes it does, just may take a few seconds to update.

sunnyjei

Thank you all very much! This is a crop at 100% zoom. It took a little over 24 hours, 5k iterations, and 96% convergence.This is my clearest/least nosy render to date the peach fuzz even showed up on her face :D Excited to edit it a bit in Photoshop but overall really, really pleased with how the full render turned out.

fastbike1

@sunnyjei "overall really, really pleased with how the full render turned out"

By Jove, I think you've got it!   

sunnyjei

Thank you- I consider it a team win