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With correction
Wow!
And may I say how impressed I am by your improvement over the last month?!!!
My final version (although I may try to do a second entry if I have time; I've always been afraid of monochrome palattes, but all the amazing monochromatic entries this month have been really inspiring!)
click for full size
I'm really happy with this - it's one of my favorites I've ever done. And considering how uninspired I felt at the beginning of the month, that's a pretty cool difference.
I tweaked the DoF as much as I dared (I've never done photography, and I had to adjust the F-stop to get a wider area for the DoF - but I didn't want to change it too much because I have no idea what an F-stop actually is), and then I spent a really long time playing with lighting. I wanted to keep it soft, but needed shadows so it looked 3D, and that was a tough line to walk. More about that in the next post for anyone who's interested!
@PixelReaper - I have a rough understanding of what tone mapping and gamma are, but I really need to figure out what the heck an F-stop does in a normal camera! And thank you for the info about what actual photographers do for portrait shots! Since I decided to keep her as she was, does that make me avant-garde?
@Kismet2012 - it's a concrete wall, so I doubt it! I suspect some of my lighting is reflecting off the paint, though.
In the end, I went with a rather kitbashed lighting setup using a ghost light and two of the lights from ThePhilospher's BOSS lighting product, as well as my original lighting (overhead lights from the set and daz's default hdri). The set, by the way, is called The Rec Room - it's a really nice and surprisingly flexible set with lots of kitbashing potential, as well as lighting and camera presets, and it's a Daz Original, so it's on sale regularly.
In the images below (a screenshot from while I was working), you can see my general set up. I've deleted or turned off every single surface in the room that isn't affecting the shot, and added two spotlights and one box light with a honeycomb filter (photographers, did I get that terminology right?), all from the BOSS lights. You can see the ghost light outlined in yellow in the second image; that's actually providing most of the light that's new to this version. I dimmed the other lights down a bunch - they were casting shadows that were too harsh for what I wanted.
The other big change in this version is that I used the eye materials and morphs from chevybabe's Natural Eyes for Genesis 8. I'm not going to pretend I understand how the product did this, but suddenly I've got this gorgeous reflection on her eyes. More things add to my ever-growing list of things I want to learn.
Speaking of which - am I the only one who'd love to have one of these monthly challenges focus on render settings? They baffle me in iray, and they baffle me in 3delight, and I suspect that my ignorance is part of why my renders take hours and hours to run.
As always, click on the images if you want to see them full size.
So .... I basically know just enough to sound like I know what I'm doing, when actually I have no real clue.
Hopefully someone who actually understands white point settings will chime in, but here's what I know. Under Render Settings in iray, there's an option for adjusting the "white point balance." Tweaking it by tiny amounts affects the color of your render - both hue and saturation are especially influenced by the setting. I've never actually played with it myself, though - this is just what I've gleaned from browsing the forums.
Now the difference is huge and it looks more realistic than previous versions (many people will become confuse either she is virtual...)
@LaPartita love your final version. The lighting seems way more natural and the slight blurriness of her closer limbs helps the face to jumpout for my mind. DoF is definitely another one of those skills to learn. I had a play with that in my last one and I found that the simpler scene I had chosen allowed me to adjust settings and see the changes happening in my viewport before going for the render. I am then hoping to apply that to more comlicated views!
Definitely not just you! During this month, I have learnt so much from reading up comments to try to speed things up but I am not sure how much I actually know and how much is guesswork. I have managed to trim render times by doing various things but I couldn't say how much each thing did!
Interesting, I may have to try that myself to see what that does. Personally, I have been playing with spotlight colour settings. I have found that just reducing the whiteness of the light even slightly can help with some washouts. Adjusting the intensity can sometimes help, as did changing the temperature of the light - higher goes towards blue (cooler) end of spectrum and lower towards red (warmer) end. It's a massive learning curve for sure and I am enjoying the challenge of finding out, so any tips are always welcome!
Thanks. I´ll check out the Light Probe. I know the sun is not a proper way to ligtht a portrait, but I learned a lot about render settings.
Huge improvement - very naturalisitic and relaxed. The effort you put into it really shows.
Once more the past month has been full of surprises and not getting to interact here as much as I'd like. There are just a whole lot of amazing works going on here.
I have sat down to try to figure out LIE many times in the past and I'm really glad that this months challenge motivated me to finally get it done. Truly a nice tool to have in the mix.
I originally started on a clown...that was just creepy so classic old film genre Vampire. LIE was used for the skin, lips, blood, and in the irises although that doesn't seem to pick up well in the lighting.
Postwork to add a bit of vignette to pull the eye more to the center o/w all DAZ.
Intermediate Entry - LIE
Night Things
Hello,
this is my entry for the Intermediate Challenge L.I.E
Title: Kung Fu Balance
Created with DAZ Studio 4.12
Model: Genesis 8 Male
Architecture: Kake-Zukuri Temple
I'm currently working on my own martial artist character and face make up as well as body paint and tattoos. Here is the very first render made for this challenge.
The DOF is very effective. I like the way her hair is falling down the left side of her face. Unfortunately, her hair appears to be clipping into her right shoulder. If the hair has the morphs you could try either shortening the hair slightly or move it more forward or behind the shoulder. Hair can be tricky.
You did very well with the expression.
It is a wonderful image. The strong DOF is not wrong. We all have our preferences and as you said, getting it right is tricky and if you are happy with it that is all that matters.
She is a very lovely subject and you did her justice.
I also have an older nVidia card so some renders take FOREVER to complete so I understand exactly what you are saying.
That thumb looks much better.
She turned out lovely and was worth all the effort. It is amazing sometimes what we come up with when we are completely uninspired. I often entered Challenges/Contests as they gave me a direction and/or focus and ended up being some of my favourite images.
Excellent job. The pops of colour really work.
Well done with the LIE tattoos and makeup.
The only critique I have is with the camera placement. You cut off the toes of his foot.
Other than that I really like how and where you have placed him in relation to the background.
Drat, I knew you would spot the hair...
In previous renders the front bangs were also clipping but they could be tweaked and I was hoping to make them obscure the hair behind - sadly not! She doesn't look quite right with short enough hair and those strands, unfortunately, are the only ones I cannot move in the morphs! I will see if I can coax a bit of movement and perhaps I might get away with a slight tilt of the head. I will get back to that after I finish today's renders. Went completely off-piste today and have been playing with scenes!
Ok, so managed to get a pose of the hair that allowed me to tweak it away from the shoulder, without much shortening at all.
This would be the first version of my (again almost last minute) entry to the beginner's challenge, "Portrait Rendering (Expressions and Lighting)".
WIP title: Red leaves
Rendered in Daz Studio with iray.
No postwork (yet), only turned the image into jpg in image editor
Been experimenting with backlit outdoors-y scenes, this would be one of such attempts.
I have some questions about composition/cropping:
Been wondering if it's okay not to have her face/eye in one of the "third points" on a portrait?
Also, is this DoF effect look acceptable or too much? Been playing with that effect for a while but sometimes it still feels like dark magic. :/
Any feedback or critique are totally appreciated and welcome :3
Hello, all
This is my entry into the Beginner Challenge. I hope you like it and look forward to any tips and suggestions you may have.
Title: Faella Portrait
Software: DAZ Studio 4.12 w/ Iray
Model: Carmelita HD by Daz and Fred Winkler Art
RGB HDRi Soft Lights for Daz Studio - Iray by valzheimer
Morningstar Wings by Daz, Anna Benjamin, and Mada
Elysa Hair by outoftouch
Update for my Beginner's Challenge
Victoria the 1st
Shortened her hair on the right side to eliminate (I hope!) clipping... gonna be a busy week, so I suspect this is my "final" entry... but i'm still interested in advice, comments, and critiques.
~ Andy
Ok just made this today.
Armor: https://www.daz3d.com/skull-queen-for-genesis-2-female-s
Otherworldly Beauty
I think most of us have had an issue with a hair or clothing or something that we couldn't easily resolve. That is when you go to creative use of camera angles and lighting and if that doesn't work you either change the offending object or if it is minor enough hope no one notices.
Looks much better. Now it appears to be brushing her shoulder.
There are many different "rules" when it comes to composition....and even then they are guidelines. The January New User Challenge covers composition.
What works for me in your image is the way the wall/walkway draws your eye towards your figure. The DOF enhances that for me. It keeps her in focus and allows the background to be a guide and not a distraction.
Great colour pallete. Very harmonious.
My eyes are drawn right to her face...which is exactly what you want in a portrait.
The soft lighting suit your subject. Just a suggestion, a soft rim light behind her head might add a bit of a halo effect.
Shortening the hair really changes her look. It is softening and eliminating some of the shadows. It isn't always easy to deal with hair clipping.
She is expressing a lot of attitude in her expression and stance. The partial moon or planet showing behind her head does a good job of framing and drawing the eye.
Thanks for the feedback, Kismet2012!
Oh, I've just read the OP properly and I think I misunderstood something:
"Or if you have not participated in the February Lighting Challenge"
Is this correct? If yes then I'll rework my image to quickly to qualify for the intermediate challenge.