[acquiesse]

Hi,

I was hoping someone could give me advice on lighting.

I am an architectural student and a major use of my renders is to demonstrate the sense of space and light which I will have in my buildings.

The recommendation seems to be using a single emmitter to light my renders (i use hdr as well) ,however I have to mess around making the size of the surface bigger to create enough light, its not very precise.

If I want a realistic effect of lighting in a room doesn't that mean I should have a filament, inside a glass bulb? I can hardly claim to be demonstrating a realistic interpretation of the space otherwise.... But this will make my render times huge!

Is there anyway around this? Are there any threads on a similar topic?

Thanks

Mark

[adamwade]

I think you should built the emitter object the approximate size of the light bulb. Maybe use a low polygon sphere for bulbs and a six sided cylinder for a FL tube, etc.

The size is very critical IMO to getting the realism. The size will affect the size and spread of shadows. I have only been working with MW for a week, but have been messing with small emitters inside LED lights. It takes some tweaking.