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Thanks for the HDRI, Cath. I'll have a play around with it over the next few days.
Cheers,
Alex.
Thanks so much my dear! XOXO
You welcome! enjoy !
Thank you for the new HDRI. It looks beautiful, but when I added G3F she looks huge. I loaded the MEC4D HDRI Harbor 1 HIGH and then added G3F in the default pose at default location 0,0. I rendered through the HDRI Camera. Where did I go wrong?
lol I forgot to set back the camera after rendering Mat Ball previews, just select V8 in the scene and click the [ + ] on the viewport to reset the camera / zoom /scale not the last one as it will reset the focal to default, for full body use focal length 27 to 36 mm , for higher focals than 50mm like for portraits you need to turn the DOF off , if you want to have close face and sharp background use the zoom of the camera from the viewport , people make mistake zooming using focal length and that create unwanted effect on the HDRI in the background without DOF it is like the Digital Zoom effect what is nit as good even in real camera . Or you can render out without Dome and use back plates instead.
That helped a lot.
I set the focal length to 36 and clicked the + to frame the whole figure.
Now I'm wondering what are the recommendations for moving and rotating the camera. Which controls are the right ones to use, to keep her the right size relative to the background?
You got it, well done , as long she is in the conter of the scene you can rotate the camera any direction in vertical position , to make her go away from center and keep the natural camera axis you need to move the model not the camera in the viewport , once you like the scale by zooming the viewport camera forward and back to get right scale , you can move the models forward and backward using XYZ and keep the cmera untouched, everything will in balance with the background even if you move the camera to the right or left , the HDRI was shot so it fit as much possible DAZ models in details and the eye level . You model looks like 6ft btw ;) I don't remember how tall is V
The Megapacks I sell in DAZ store include all the cameras for nice photography shots from full body to portraits to go with the sets or any HDRI I made
Here is the Matte function behind the scene, of how to use HDRI environments to the max and not just as static scenes , it is more fun, the matt function not only can hide the partially models behind the 2D elements in the HDRI but also can catch the shadow or cast a shadow so the 2D element in the HDRI become more functional , it is like you rebuild the HDRI scene with primitives , you can change any direction of the shadow so there are a lot of possibilities , the Matte function can also catch light from a spot light etc.. or reflection
WOW, now that's cool!
Thanks for the free HDRI, Cath, very generous! And I will look forward to following your new developments on this thread.
You welcome Phil , and thanks Richard
packing my super mega beach HDRI pack with 8 HDRIs , the HDRI maps are moving back to Runtime folder again due of some issues some people have on the system with , also due to a big product in size I am skipping Light Probes this time
I have to admit that since I got the Liberty Ferry Megapack your cameras from that are just about all I use for everything. They are that good.
Thank you, that are my general cameras I use since using DS ;) everything you need for a good photo shot !
Excellent, love this one Cath! Thanks for another great free HDRI.
Well since Cath was so kind to give us such a nice free HDRI I think it's only fair to show her how we use it and what great results we get. Here's my first attempt with it fresh from Photoshop. I had a lot of fun with this so thanks again Cath. You rock!
Hmmm. I didn't want to sign up but I guess I will that grass & those building look great.
I understand your hesitancy to sign up for yet another account on yet another website and remember yet another password, etc. You have to weigh the benefit vs. the pain. The quality of Mec4D products made it worth creating an account for me.
Yeah, haha, I have sooooo many accounts, more than one forgotten now even but I decided to sign up too.
I am glad Google remember all my accounts and passwords , I hate that myself but if you want every week a good freebie like that it is worthy, HDRI like that sell for $50 somewhere else, besides the weekly freebie is just for one week and then back on sale again so I can't share it via link it would kill my costs of bandwidth since it becomes very popular lately and not just from our community, as they say, when you get a free horse, don't check its teeth ..just take ! lol
Nice job , I notice in many renders that the skin shaders are so dark compared with clothing and other stuff, it is good to use the low level of SSS shader when rendering using HDRI especially outside or sunny days, the skin needs more reflection than absorption with so much light around to better match the environment , yours is almost fine
You welcome my friend !
Here some beach previews and cameras , the morning sun light position "'magic hour"' is great for the portraits without harsh shadows on the face , as usual you can change the lighting tone and turns it into sunset light as well , from cool to warm effect ( white point ) under tone mapping in rendering settings , I also throw in the beach parking
you can change the lighting tone and turns it into sunset light as well , from cool to warm effect ( white point ) under tone mapping in rendering settings so if you choice blue color it will remove the blue tone and replace it with yellow, and if you use red color it will replace it and turn more green, as in color negative, the cool colors turn warm the HDRI and warm colors turn it cooler .
First test image with the freebie HDRI - the light is very intense and wonderful scope for backgrounds too. Thanks again, Cath!
P.S. This is iRay but I tried it in Octane for Carrara as well and it is equally great!
These look great. I love that you've got so much variety here from the sea to the car park, it'll give us so much scope for all kinds of different scenes. Come to think of it I can't remember any other outdoor car parking scenes being available. Plenty of roads and a few showrooms, garages and underground parking ones but nothing like this comes to mind so that makes this pack even more useful. Really looking forward to these and I can't wait to see what Ideas for scenes I can come up with when it's out.
I can't wait to buy the beaches HRDIs
OMG those beach HDRI's look amazing! Its like Christmas morning everyday!
I don't know how I missed seeing this thread until today, but I'm happy and excited to see you back! I love and own all of your shader packs; I use them regularly and they're my go-to resource. And your bone shader last summer was a real treat!
Thank you for your generosity in sharing your knowledge and so many freebies. I look forward to playing with the new HDRI freebie and am excited to see the upcoming beach and Chinese garden sets.
Last year, you had indicated you had some more shader packs in the works. Are they still on the horizon? Hopefully you didn't lose that work with your HD meltdown.
Lastly, I was pleasantly surprised to see Unshaven for G3M on your store. Without trying to make waves, will that product be available for sale at Daz as well?
Truely beautiful shots. I have a completely underutilised D600 and was actually thinking of creating some HDRI's. As you probably know this camera only has 3 step exposure bracketting. On the other hand these sensors are always praised for their dynamic range. In your experience, is 3 steps 2EV enough when shooting RAW? Probably depends on the lighting right? But just on average, say for a typical sunrise/sunset scene.
Could get a Promote of course but that seems kinda overkill for now.
Thanks Cath for the beautiful free hdri! The new beach one look amazing, I can't wait for there release.
The Matte Function looks fascinating, will have to do some experiments using your lovely free hdri ( : Where would I find the Matte function in Daz Studio?