DS-targeted Photography Tutorial

I'm not a photographer, by profession or hobby. The more I get involved in Daz Studio the more I'm convinced that this is my greatest obstacle to creating compelling renders. I just recently played around with some of the sliders I've avoided touching in the Iray Tone Mapping render tab and was surprised at the results. Reading the descriptions of the effects of these controls has some benefit, but however I approach it, without understanding the theory and heuristics actual photographers use when setting up a shot, it would take me a great deal of time to have any grasp on how to set them properly. I think there also are some important differences between how a physical camera works, and the DS controls.

Does anyone know of any tutorials on Daz Studio Iray camera and render settings, written by a capable photographer? I think that would be incredibly helpful.

Barring that, if any photographers in the crowd can just steer me toward a good primer on the relevant technical elements of photography, I'd appreciate it!

Comments

  • charlescharles Posts: 775
    edited January 2022

    There's a hundred different websites and blogs (if not more) dedicated to photography where one could get started. But you are correct that one needs to have a good concept to photography in order to really appreciate the rendering options avaible, not only that but then how in Daz you can break the limits of traditional photography.  Example, you can go beyond the typical depths of field of traditional cameras.   You also have absolute control over your lighting in Daz, and getting good lighting is almost everything for establishing "compelling renders". So photography alone isn't enough one should also look into lighting and composition such as that of films. But it really depends on WHAT you are trying to render. People use Daz for ALL kinds of things, comic books, portraits, animation, short films games, promos, photorealism, anime, por.... you get my drift. There is lap over for each of these types but then each can also be highly specialized.

    There is actually so many good video tutorials on Youtube I don't even know where to start except just to search youtube and start watching videos. But also delve in and experiment and play with it. If your card can handle it setup a scene and switch your viewport to NVIDIA mode and play with the lightings, enviroment settings, camera settings to see what does what, which is faster then waiting for a render to see the same result.

    Post edited by charles on
  • charles said:

    There's a hundred different websites and blogs (if not more) dedicated to photography where one could get started. But you are correct that one needs to have a good concept to photography in order to really appreciate the rendering options avaible, not only that but then how in Daz you can break the limits of traditional photography.  Example, you can go beyond the typical depths of field of traditional cameras.   You also have absolute control over your lighting in Daz, and getting good lighting is almost everything for establishing "compelling renders". So photography alone isn't enough one should also look into lighting and composition such as that of films. But it really depends on WHAT you are trying to render. People use Daz for ALL kinds of things, comic books, portraits, animation, short films games, promos, photorealism, anime, por.... you get my drift. There is lap over for each of these types but then each can also be highly specialized.

    There is actually so many good video tutorials on Youtube I don't even know where to start except just to search youtube and start watching videos. But also delve in and experiment and play with it. If your card can handle it setup a scene and switch your viewport to NVIDIA mode and play with the lightings, enviroment settings, camera settings to see what does what, which is faster then waiting for a render to see the same result.

    I'm aware there are many sources of information on photography. Of course. But doubtless they aren't all equally useful, and what's wrong with asking for a recommendation or two from experts? Isn't that preferable to just randomly diving into a sea of information? I'll do that if no one responds with suggestions. I'm aware of the importance of lighting and composition, and constantly work to improve there, as do most of us. Please don't assume that I'm some sort of complete novice.

    Thanks

  • IceCrMnIceCrMn Posts: 2,103

    mikethe3dguy is correct.The camera functions in Studio only share names with their real world counterparts, and that is where the similarities mostly end.

    Sure, things like DOF are close, but are not affected by focal length/focal distance.The number of aperture blades/rotation(bokeh ?), and whole list of other things that affect real cameras but not Studio cameras in the same way  

    A Studio specific tutorial would be fantastic.

     

  • mikethe3dguymikethe3dguy Posts: 515
    edited January 2022

    Fishtales said:

    Try this. Ignore the DOF parts for the moment as they only will apply in the Camera settings themselves not in the tone Mapping

    https://photographylife.com/f-stop

    https://photographylife.com/iso-shutter-speed-and-aperture-for-beginners

    https://photographylife.com/what-is-shutter-speed-in-photography

    https://photographylife.com/what-is-iso-in-photography

    Thanks, I appreciate the links. Do you have any insight on the differences between the camera's "F/Stop" and the one in Tone Mapping and whether/how they relate or interact? That one's always confused me.

    Post edited by mikethe3dguy on
  • FishtalesFishtales Posts: 6,039

    I use them the same as I use them with my photography I don't have a problem.

  • IceCrMn said:

    mikethe3dguy is correct.The camera functions in Studio only share names with their real world counterparts, and that is where the similarities mostly end.

    Sure, things like DOF are close, but are not affected by focal length/focal distance.The number of aperture blades/rotation(bokeh ?), and whole list of other things that affect real cameras but not Studio cameras in the same way  

    A Studio specific tutorial would be fantastic.

    It really surprises me that there aren't at least a couple tutorial products in the Daz store addressing this. It's one of the biggest unaddressed problems IMO.

  • mikethe3dguymikethe3dguy Posts: 515
    edited January 2022

    Fishtales said:

    I use them the same as I use them with my photography I don't have a problem.

    Sorry but I'm not a photographer. Isn't there only one F/Stop setting, on your camera?

    Post edited by mikethe3dguy on
  • FYI: just found a very helpful article by Sickleyield on DeviantArt: It also has a link to a video she created that covers the same ground. What would I do without her?

  • FishtalesFishtales Posts: 6,039

    mikethe3dguy said:

    Fishtales said:

    I use them the same as I use them with my photography I don't have a problem.

    Sorry but I'm not a photographer. Isn't there only one F/Stop setting, on your camera?

    The F/stop depends on the lens used. Some lenses will go down to 1.4 where others only go down to 3.5 and some have a longer range than others some only doing a short range of a couple of stops while others do more. That, fortunately, doesn't come into play ain Studio :)

     

  •  

    The F/stop depends on the lens used. Some lenses will go down to 1.4 where others only go down to 3.5 and some have a longer range than others some only doing a short range of a couple of stops while others do more. That, fortunately, doesn't come into play ain Studio :)

    Sorry, I'm not being clear. When you take a picture with a physical camera you have one F/Stop adjustment, right? In Daz there's an "F/Stop" in Tone Mapping and an "F-Stop" on the camera, which can be set to completely different values. Unlike on a physical camera. I'm guessing Daz has two instead of one because the F/Stop has two primary effects:

    1. Changing the focal length, which alters depth of field
    2. Increasing/reducing the amount of light that hits the film or CCD, which brightens/darkens the image

    ...and separating F/Stop into two adjustments gives Daz users individual control over those two effects, something real-world photographers don't have. I guess my question is: should I take unrestricted advantage of the fact that I can independently adjust these two F/Stop effects, or are there any reasons to set them the same, as they would be on a physical camera?

  • FishtalesFishtales Posts: 6,039

    The F/stop in Tone Mapping sets the amount of light entering the lens. The F/stop in the camera settings sets the DOF You can set them the same and adjust the Speed and ISO in Tone Mapping to adjust the darkness or lightness of the image. It just makes it esier for the user to have them separate :)

     

  • Fishtales said:

    The F/stop in Tone Mapping sets the amount of light entering the lens. The F/stop in the camera settings sets the DOF You can set them the same and adjust the Speed and ISO in Tone Mapping to adjust the darkness or lightness of the image. It just makes it esier for the user to have them separate :)

    Thanks

Sign In or Register to comment.