Does anybody know of any tutorials or general rules concerning effective
scene lighting? I seem to have no skill in this regard, and cannot find
anything that will give me pointers in the right direction. Can anybody
suggest something along these lines?

MJL

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You might start with some of the basic stuff designed for still and video
work.  Although 3D has more flexibility in this regard, this will give you a
good start.

One basic model is a 3-point lighting system with a key light above and to
one side of the camera, a fill light (about half as strong) placed on the
opposite side of the camera, and a back light (1/2 to 1/3 as strong) placed
behind the objects in your scene as shown below.

BL=Back Light
O=Object(s)
KL=Key Light
C=Camera
FL=Fill Light

            BL

             O

KL        C           FL

That's pretty basic, but it should help you get started.

Mark James Lewin wrote:

> Does anybody know of any tutorials or general rules concerning effective
> scene lighting? I seem to have no skill in this regard, and cannot find
> anything that will give me pointers in the right direction. Can anybody
> suggest something along these lines?
>
> MJL

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Mike Wilson wrote:

>BL=Back Light
>O=Object(s)
>KL=Key Light
>C=Camera
>FL=Fill Light
>
>            BL
>
>             O
>
>KL        C           FL
>
>That's pretty basic, but it should help you get started.
>
>Mark James Lewin wrote:
>
>> Does anybody know of any tutorials or general rules concerning
>> effective scene lighting?

In general I would say "less is more".

In daylight scenes, one light (the sun) and MegaPov radiosity. If you 
don't want to use radiosity try it with shadowless fill lights.

In Mike's example (used in portrait and single object photoraphy), when 
the object has no hair/fur, you can leave out the backlight quite often. 
The Fill light can be replace with a reflection screen, use a white box 
and (MegaPov)radiosity.

Lots of information on this subject can be found in photography books and 
sites. But keep in mind that they mostly use a diffuse light source, 
something that is not available in povray (altough it can be simulated 
with "overly bright radiosity objects"). So contrast is a bit higher.


Ingo

-- 
Photography: http://members.home.nl/ingoogni/
Pov-Ray    : http://members.home.nl/seed7/

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Thank you Mike and ingo. I'll give these a try.

MJL

ingo wrote:

> Mike Wilson wrote:
>
> >BL=Back Light
> >O=Object(s)
> >KL=Key Light
> >C=Camera
> >FL=Fill Light
> >
> >            BL
> >
> >             O
> >
> >KL        C           FL
> >
> >That's pretty basic, but it should help you get started.
> >
> >Mark James Lewin wrote:
> >
> >> Does anybody know of any tutorials or general rules concerning
> >> effective scene lighting?
>
> In general I would say "less is more".
>
> In daylight scenes, one light (the sun) and MegaPov radiosity. If you
> don't want to use radiosity try it with shadowless fill lights.
>
> In Mike's example (used in portrait and single object photoraphy), when
> the object has no hair/fur, you can leave out the backlight quite often.
> The Fill light can be replace with a reflection screen, use a white box
> and (MegaPov)radiosity.
>
> Lots of information on this subject can be found in photography books and
> sites. But keep in mind that they mostly use a diffuse light source,
> something that is not available in povray (altough it can be simulated
> with "overly bright radiosity objects"). So contrast is a bit higher.
>
> Ingo
>
> --
> Photography: http://members.home.nl/ingoogni/
> Pov-Ray    : http://members.home.nl/seed7/

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