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Does photography knowledge translate to Daz3d?

dannybeattie21dannybeattie21 Posts: 14
in New Users

Hi All - 9 years ago I fell upon an obsession with photography which (a year later) saw me start a successful business that paid the bills for several years.

The joy was ultimately sapped out of the hobby as the elememts of the hobby (studio work, single-image work) gradually took a back seat and was replaced with cookie-cutter weddings and other activities that didn't really interest me. (Much of my work is still around online, if you are interested just Google 'Danny Beattie' you'll quickly find my Flickr which was a place to post the stuff that actually interested me). Believe me when I say this, being a wedding photographer pays well but there's only so many Bridezilla's that you can deal with before you start to lose faith in  humanity and there's only so many times you can take macro-images of wedding rings and shots of napkins folded into wine-glasses before you question your choice of career...

I sold all of my camera gear last year and haven't had a single regret (other than the times when I'm stuck with my phone camera to take pictures of our dog).

The bottom line is this; I enjoyed creating unique images with off camera lighting and finishing them with some Lightroom and Photoshop work. I'd rather spend an hour setting up a shot that will stand the test of time than taking hundreds of pictures hoping that a handful will please a client.

A friend suggested Daz3D to me after a conversation where I mentioned my appreciation of fantasy artwork and after taking a look I am interested, I've got the enthusiasm to learn the UI and how it operates but will it be something that can scratch my 'creative itch'? Does it give someone like myself the freedom to experiment with lighting in a relatively straight forward manner? For example, if I wanted to introduce a rim-light to an indoor shot to see what impact it has is this easy to achieve?

Sorry for the long post but I become a little obsessed with new hobbies and now that I'm old enough to realise this about myself I now try and pick my hobbies well - I'm sure some of you will understand what I mean here!

Thanks! 

 

 

 

Comments

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 100,804

    In Iray the lights behave in an approximation to the way real lights behave, and you can adjust exposure with familiar values in Render  Settings (except that f-stop is split in two - the one in Render Settings doesn't change DoF and hgh ISO doesn't add noise). High-contrast or indirectly-lit scenes are likely to stay noisy for longer when rendering, which I guess is similar to using a real camera. Overall I think it's fair to say that Iray is quite like using a real camera and lights (especially if you set the environment mode in Render Settings to Scene Only, eliminating the ambient light) but it isn't an exact simulation.

  • FishtalesFishtales Posts: 6,119

    You are working in a three dimensional image so go about creating the scene as if you were actually there or in a studio. Things don't always work the way they should but there are always ways to work around it. ( An amateur photographer who still uses his cameras :) )

  • PaintboxPaintbox Posts: 1,633

    I would suggest anyone to pick up photography if you use Daz3D. The skills carry over splendidly. I am sure once you cleared some interface hurdles (how to use it) you can apply much of what you learned as a photographer. 
    There is also a nice product that gives you softboxes, grids, reflectors. Ill search for it and post below if I can find it.

  • PaintboxPaintbox Posts: 1,633

    Found it!

    https://www.daz3d.com/ig-photographers-toolbox-photo-lights

    I use this from time to time to mimick real world shoots, or even to composite.

  • dannybeattie21dannybeattie21 Posts: 14
    Paintbox said:

    Found it!

    https://www.daz3d.com/ig-photographers-toolbox-photo-lights

    I use this from time to time to mimick real world shoots, or even to composite.

    Excellent - it's in my cart! Thank you.

    Not exactly related to the subject of the thread but the interactive tutorials within Daz Studio are pretty good.

     

  • PetercatPetercat Posts: 2,321

    The camera controls take a little getting used to, for example the f-stop results do not match what you would expect in real life. I use f50-100  to get a depth of field that I would expect at f2.8-4 in real life.
    And if you decide to adjust overall lighting by changing the ISO, lock the Exposure Value first, or  it will change at the same time to negate the ISO change.
    Also, you might want to make sure that the camera frame width is set to match what you're used to, I think the default is 35mm, I have mine set to 60mm and the lens to whatever fits the scene, as I'm accustomed to medium format film.

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