Billions of Lighting Products!

rnollman

I made the mistake of typing the search word "lighting" inot the DAZ marketplace search and I have never seen so many rows of products. I know this is a difficult question, but can anyone make some recommendations for easy to use lighting for indoor (and outdoor?) scenes for a novice? I am looking for something that is relatively simple to use. I do not want to mess with cameras and lights because they are very complex in DAZ Studio. I have used them in Bryce, but Bryce lighting is relatively simple.Also, I am not that particular.

Say, for example, I want to set up some indoor Wild West scenes. Are there products that allow you to create a Wild West interior (a saloon, for example) with characters and props and then add lighting? Or am I oversimpifying the concept of adding lighting to an indoor scene.

I know that with some products, you get a studio scene with varous backdrops (curtains, paper rolls, cloth, etc, and you can add characters and props. Can you do that with complex indoor products (like an interior saloon scene) or is there is complicated process where you have to make a lot of ajdustments to cameras and lights to get anything that creates a decent render. Do the Wild West indoor scenes, for example, have their own lighting so you do not need an external program?

Maybe what I am asking for a list of starter products to get my feet wet. I realize that each product addresses some aspect of specific lighting. Without actually having much experience with lighting a scene, it is difficult for a novice to figure out what to buy. Maybe I need someone to help me frame my question better. Experienced DAZ users will probably want to know what exactly I want to do in a scene. The anwer to that question is that I do not know enough to know what I don't know. I have interesting ideas I want to pursue with DAZ Studio, but fear that I will get discouraged when my renders do not look like the ones I see in the promo ads. I also have no problem with post-processing use of Photoshop, a product I am familiar with. Not sure how many of the promo ads are worked over in Photoshop or some other tool to enhance them and fix any problems in the renders. I also assume that I will be doing IRAY renders. Again, I am assuming that IRAY renders and better than 3dDelight renders, but that could be due to my lack of experience.

rnollman

Note that in the next to last paragraph,I meant external DAZ product and not external program.

nonesuch00

Well remember these things I always forget and that I'm willing to bet most hobbyists using DAZ Studio don't even know! I know, but keep forgetting.

a) If you iRay render AND use photometric lighting in your scene AND use Sun-Sky in your scene that has the effect of almost, but not quite 100%, negating all the photometric lights in your scene. If you need a Sun-Sky type lighting in addition to photometric lighting in a scene use photometric lighting AND "Dome and Scene" in your iRay Environment configuration.

b) Don't forget to turn off "Use Headlamps when no scene lighting" in your iRay configuration.

c) Don't use spectral rendering when you use photometric lights..

If you remember those three things you will find placing and using photometric lighting in your scenes 1000s of times easier and maybe you consider not even purchasing any lighting products.

rnollman

OK. Let's take this one step at a time:

You said:

a) If you iRay render AND use photometric lighting in your scene 

          What is "photometric lighting" and why would I want to use it? Do I have a choice? How to I turn it on and off and what parameters do I need to adjust?

AND use Sun-Sky in your scene

          What is Sun-Sky? Why would I use it or not use it?  Do I have to turn it? Is it turned on or off by default? What parameters do I need to be concerned with in IRAY to set it correctly? Why would I want to use both Sun            Sky and photometric lighting in a scene?

that has the effect of almost, but not quite 100%, negating all the photometric lights in your scene.

         Why is it a bad thing to negate photometric lights in my scene? 

If you need a Sun-Sky type lighting in addition to photometric lighting in a scene

        Why wouldl I want to use both Sun-Sky and photometric lighting in my scene?

use photometric lighting AND "Dome and Scene" in your iRay Environment configuration.

        What is "Dome and Scene? How do I set it? Why would I want to or not want to set it? Where are they in my IRAY Environment configuration? Is it a single checkbox item (shut off or turn on) or are there other related          parameters that must be set?

b) Don't forget to turn off "Use Headlamps when no scene lighting" in your iRay configuration.

        Why do I want to turn "Use Headlamps when no scene lighting" in my IRAY configuration? Where do I find this parameter? Is it simply a check-box item or are there multiple related parameters?

c) Don't use spectral rendering when you use photometric lights..

        What is "spectral rendering" and why would I want to use it or not use it? Where do I find this parameter? Is is simply a check-box item? Why do I not want to use when using photometric lights?

If you remember those three things you will find placing and using photometric lighting in your scenes 1000s of times easier

         How do I find and place photometric lighiting in my scene? Why would I want to do this? Do products that I buy as interior scenes (or exterior scenes) have photometric lighting included? How would I know?

and maybe you consider not even purchasing any lighting products.

        i do not understand this as I have no experience with lighting. I want to learn, but I want to have some idea of what I am doing before I start buying products.. Why would I not need lighting products? Sounds good to            me, but without lighting products, I fear that my renders will be unacceptable and not be of the same quality as the promo ads for these products.

Is there one or more tutuorials that you can recommend that cover these topics in simple terms that a novice can understand? 

The problem for me is that I see the promo ads for a product, buy the product, and then find out that to create the scene in the promo ads, you need a host of other products and you need to have expert knowledge to set up all the parameters so they work together to create the scene you saw in the promo ads. I wish there were tutorials that show how the scenes in the promo ads were created, step-by-step. 

I had high hopes this time around that I could reproduce the results in the promo ads. But I wonder if the learning curve may be too steep. I tried to find a tutor or a mentor, but that turned into a nightmare. No one from the DAZ forums took up my offer to pay a tutor. So I got a response from a person through Freelancer and I ended up having to close my account because the person was not delivering the service and kept charging me.

Leonides02

nonesuch00 said:

 

c) Don't use spectral rendering when you use photometric lights..

 

Spectral works great as long as you choose "faithful."