Ben Lauritzen wrote:
> 
> These spheres look great on a black background, but when I put them on a
> grey one, they look horrible.  Why is this?
> 

I'd say there are mainly 2 reasons:
1) You are using a reflective finish, so the reflection of the brighter
surroundings basically decreases the contrast of the spheres; see if using
reflection_exponent will alleviate this problem.
2) You are using only emitting media; the colour of emitting media is added to
any colour seen through it. On a light background this will give a washed-out
look, because the combined colour gets too bright (saturated with white). Try
adding absorbing properties to the media - bear in mind that the hue of the
absorbing media should generally be the inverse of the emission colour.
Something like this:
media{
  emission <1,0,0>
  absorption <0,.5,.5>
  density{...}
}

-- 
Margus Ramst

Personal e-mail: mar### [at] peakeduee
TAG (Team Assistance Group) e-mail: mar### [at] tagpovrayorg
Home page http://www.hot.ee/margusrt

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