Need Advice. My battle with Gamma and Gamma Correction
dakkuuan
Posts: 305
I'm very much in a rock and hard place. My preference is to leave Gamma Correction on and Gama at 2.2 and this usually looks okay. This ensures that the picture isn't too dark and the characters themselves look good, due to the SSS. Yet, I've started working with the Alruna armor again and I'm finding it pretty much destroys the armor's textures. I'm using the Firey Genesis lighting and backdrop, because the armor really pops on these settings. I'm going to upload each picture in a seperate reply and comment on it. This first image is no Gama Correction and the Gama at 1. The armor looks awesome in this picture but Bree's subsurface settings are wasted, so poor Autumn (my character) doesn't look so great.
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Comments
This picture has Gama Correction on and Gama at 2.2. I love how the character looks but it washs out the other textures. Most of the effects of the lighting are lost as well.
Here is just with Gama Correction on and Gama sitting at 1. Just entirely too dark.
And finally the happy medium. This is Gama Correction on with Gama sitting at 1.6, that's the half way point between 1 and 2.2. Out of all the GC picks, this one is best overall in my eyes, but the armor still loses a bit of it's luster. This entire thing isn't a matter of creating a piece of art, but to learn how to work with GC and Gama. High gama seems to hurt a lot of textures but without the Gama Correction on, sub surface shading doesn't do it's thing. I know I could possibily render the character herself with GC and higher gama and layer an image of the armor without GC over it, but that creates an inconsistancy. I've tried upping the light intensity on other lighting presets to compensate for leaving gama at 1 with GC on, but that doesn't really work very well either. Any advice?
If it's not for animation purpose you can easealy blend the 2 image in postwork. use a mask in gimp or photoshop with the 2 render as diferent layer.
I have no idea how to solve it in DS though.
Edit: in second thougt, lowering the difuse and boosting specular value of the armor in the surface panel may do the trick, or not but its easy to try.
on "background" use the "Ambient"
put the color to "white" and add 10% at every test until you got what you wish
I'm not sure what you mean CM.
DS usually makes a fair guess at what needs correction and what doesn't. There could be a couple of issues here - either the maps don't really need correction, or the same map is being used for colour (when it needs correction) and as a control map, for bump say (when it doesn't need correction). Are these the default Alruna textures?
Yep. It's not just Alruna though, upping the gama tends to dingy up a lot of textures.
I'm not really seeing the same effect when I render at gamma 2.2 with correction on and using the Fiery Genesis lights, not as marked anyway. I can't see any obvious reasons for the effect - the control and colour maps seem to be separated OK.
I use Amrs render profiles so I'll try rendering in default settings with the gamma correction and gamma and I'll report what happens. The problem could lie there. Oh and Richard are you using 4.7 out of curiosity? That's what I'm using.
I'm not sure if it makes a difference but Gamma for Windows is 2.2 and for a Mac it is 1.8. I use Windows and find that 1.8 makes the image pale and muddy looking in Photoshop but I have never looked to see what it is set at in DAZ Studio :-)
As far as I am aware the Mac has also used a default of gamma 2.2 since OSX was introduced. Though since very few displays are calibrated or even initially set up to match a standard the reality is likely to be different anyway.
You're right enough Richard.
http://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT3712
I don't use Mac's so didn't know that.
All my displays are calibrated as I also do a lot of image work on photographs in Photoshop.
I didn't even think of this with my renders, thanks again, Richard!
I don't think display calibrations would effect the output of a render. display calibration would only effect how the render looks on the moniter not the image itself. These are Daz Studio Render settings I'm talking about. I placed the render on default settings and only changed image dimensions, the gamma correction to on and the gama to 2.2. I have been also recieving these errors:
Creating shadow map for "light - side left"
3Delight message #43 (Severity 0): R2093: object 'shapematerial_LPoleyn_2501_9c1' (displacement 'dzdisplace', surface 'dzdefaultshadow') used only 0% of its displacement bound
Creating shadow map for "light - side right"
3Delight message #43 (Severity 0): R2093: object 'shapematerial_LRerebraceStraps_2516_9cd' (displacement 'dzdisplace', surface 'dzdefaultshadow') used only 0% of its displacement bound
Creating shadow map for "light specular 01"
3Delight message #43 (Severity 0): R2093: object 'shapematerial_LPoleyn_2501_9c1' (displacement 'dzdisplace', surface 'dzdefaultshadow') used only 0% of its displacement bound
They don't seem like they are anything to worry about.
Here is the resulting image. The armor does look better on default settings, but you still lose the effects that you get from the lighting with out GC on. So I might have to create my own render profiles, maybe something with AMR's doesn't mesh well with Daz 4.7
Edit: added a new version of the picture at the same dimensions of the others and took a better look. It is better.
Severity 0 are just warnings, nothing to worry about.
Didn't think so.