IDG Portrait Studio 2 - Quick Question
Knittingmommy
Posts: 8,191
Not that I need another light set, but I'm getting it anyway. It looks amazing! It's sitting in my cart waiting for me to hit the checkout as I'm still debating a couple of other purchases. I was curious if it was possible to use just the lighting tress in other small, tight environment settings or if it is fixed to the studio? It looks like a great lighting solution to the problem of lighting one room sets where there isn't a lot of space if one can load just the lighting tress with lights into a room. Can the tress and lights still be used while also being unseen in the render if needed?
You guys did an outstanding job and I know I'll get a lot of use out of it. I know I'm asking questions that is probably outside of it's intended use, but I still had to ask!
@DestinsysGarden You're textures in the set look amazing and I like the variety! It's going to be fun diving into using it.
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Comments
The studio and the tress are separate props and load separately. The presets are made with the studio in mind, but the tress (and the attached lights props you choose) can be used (and moved) independently.
In fact, every included prop (like the backdrop or curtains) can be used separately (at least the ones I tried sofar.......
)
As to be 'unseen', well, usually one would set-up studio lights to be not visible in the 'photo' so that depends on camera angle...
Yes the lights can be used seperately from the studio. That was a selling point that kind of got overwhelmed with everything else included. The only issue would be if you zoomed out to far as the tress would just be sort of hanging in the 'air' but it should work just fine no mater where you use it. Visible? depends on what you mean, Iray doesn't like invisible so you can't turn off the light surfaces themselves but you could definately turn off the visibility on the tress if that is what you want. Personally, I spent a whole lot of time getting the scissor arms to work like they should so the thought of people turning them off is a bit crushing
(thanks glaseye)
Thanks for jumping in glaseye.
Knittingmommy, thanks for the nice comment. I had so much fun texturing the props. I hope you enjoy using them.
Take the first set (Portrait Studio) and a good Photographic Lighting Book and you have great studio shots.
For me, this one is a no brainer for helping you get great professional lighting results for Iray. :)
Right into the cart and sold. :)
Wow, thanks Spooky. That means so much to us both.
I didn't mean to crush you! I love what you do. Just ask DG. I'm always going out of my way to make sure newbies and others know just how much I love your products and that I think they are the best sets to get if you can only afford one set.
I haven't downloaded it to try it out yet, but I know, with a lot of lighting situations, I always seem to have at least one light that ends up in camera view when I'm shooting in tight quarters like in rooms. I don't know if that would happen with this set as it kind of looks like it would automatically be perfect for tight quarters. I was just curious if everything still worked if I tried turning down the opacity to make it invisible if I needed to. I really don't expect to need to do that, though.
I'm sure they will be lots of fun to use! :) I'm excited to get them downloaded. Look out for renders soon!
I tend to agree. Although, I'm not sure about the book. IDG products tend to make me look good without the need to read a lighting book. I've actually learned more by picking apart their lights than I have reading lighting tutorials!
Thanks for getting back to me, guys! :)
LOL KM, don't worry about it. He's fine. I do know he was super meticulous about getting the scissor arms to work properly.
What glaseye was getting at is if you are in a real room with a real camera and real light, you can't just tell the light to be invisible because it is blocking the camera. You either have to move the light, or move the camera. The good news is, with all the lights being attached to a single prop, the light tress, moving the entire thing is a snap. When I was messing about with it doing some of the promos, I was rotating the thing and moving it up and down on the y-axis to nudge it out of the way of the camera. Of course, there are presets to move individual lights up and down too. Just come at it from the prespective of a photographer, and you'll be fine.
I'm looking forward to the renders. cheers!
Yep, that's what I meant
look at it from a photographer's perspective. And this set has a ton of options....
Now for the renders, be patient, 1st I'll have to remember to use the right skin setup for the DS version I'm using (
), and then I do have to get my system to behave .....
On a side note, a 1st test render did work with the GPU enabled; as my graphics card only has 2GB Vram, that was a nice surprise (studio, tress + light preset, steps-prop and V7+clothing/hair)
As long as there's a thread about this, what dress is this?
If I remember right it is by outoftouch
I believe it is the Neckholder Dress for Genesis 3 by OutofTouch over at Renderosity. It sure looks like it anyway.
What this set, and the previous set, and a good photogtraphic lighting book allows, is for you to set up any studio shot, because the lights are set like real studio lights. You are not limited to the poses and presets, you can use these lights with photographic lighting books and set up the shots in the books.
You want to do Yearbook style portraits, put the lights where recommended in the book, and you get the same results as they do with real lights and cameras. You want to do a Boudoir shoot, same thing, take the book light set up, these lights, and pose your figure and you have the same results.
The only thing these sets are missing is an on camera flash. :) (Which is what the headlamp is.)
I'll look into seeing about a good photographic lighting book and see about running some experiments. Could be a good experiment for my laboratory thread. Thanks.
Not quite the type of book Spooky was talking about but any edition of Jeremy Birn's Digital Lighting & Rendering is a must have. The lighting bible to put by your bed. First couple chapters deal with positioning lights in 3d terms and are essential reading for anyone. And you definately don't need to get the newest edition.
Once upon a time I actualy had all the lighting presets setup and named in real photography terms but I thought people already think I'm crazy enough is it is now.
I did make one big change to the design of the lights in this second set. The 1st set was all about making totally physically correct lights. To that end I created the soft lights (Octabox & Softboxes) just like they really are. That is the light is created by a bulb shaped fixture, bounced around in a big refector and then passes through a diffuser material before hitting the subject. And while it really works just as it should, creating light just like a real softbox, it was a bit of a PITA to get a really clean render with. So I created simplifed version this time around. While not totally acurate in design, they render in a fraction of the time now.
Jeremy Birn's book is definitely the bible when it comes to CG lighting. He not only was the lighting director for Pixar but actually knows how to teach the subject as well. One copy on my desk at home and one at the office. :)
I've had this book in my wishlist on Amazon for quite awhile, but at almost $50, I haven't gotten it. Even the kindle version, which I prefer not to get for these types of technical books, is almost $40. It's good to know that getting the 2nd edition would still have a lot of benefit because I can pick that up for less that $5 going the used route.
I did find a few possible books to consider looking into while browsing on Amazon. And I found a few that are accessible via the library. A couple of examples are Master Lighting Guide for Portrait Photographers by Christopher Grey, which looks good, and Studio Lighting Techniques for Photography: Tips and Tricks for Trade Professional Digital Photographers by Christopher Grey.
I'm still looking so if anyone has suggestions for Photography Lighting books they think might be useful, I'll consider taking look at them.
Oh now, that would have been awesome and so helpful! And, what's wrong with a little crazy? I rather enjoy crazy every now and then! Seriously, though, that would have been a cool addition!
I really liked the 1st set and I use those boxes a lot. That first set was the first light set I ever bought and my images really, and I do mean REALLY, looked good after that. No more pitiful newbie shots that looked a fifth grader did them. Okay, to be honest, most of my earlier work looked like a first grader did them.
I still haven't had a chance to download the new light set. My computer has been working on a render since yesterday which I've been working on for two days now and it probably won't be done until morning. So, I won't get to look at the lights until this image is done! But, I'll have to take a look at that light in particular and see how I like it compared to the first ones. I imagine I won't see a difference in rendering like you would unless it manages to drastically speed up my rendering time. I don't have the slowest system around, but it certainly isn't the fastest, either.
edit: fixed grammatical error