[AgentSix]

I'm creating a top-down render of a hotel room (with the roof cut off) and I want to block the sun's shadows from entering the room. I want to see the sun's shadows on the patio of the room, and light-spills through the windows onto the furniture in the room. Inside the room, I want only the nice, even dome lighting.

I have a plane positioned on top of the room which is blocking the sun AND the dome lighting. I set the plane to Hide From Camera - Enabled, so the plane does not show up in the render, but that blocks ALL the light from the environment.

Can I set my plane to block only the sun and not the dome lighting? Is there some other clever way to do this (without using emitters)?

[Andreas Hopf]

Unfortunately, in Appearance > Blocked Emitters you cannot Add the Environment's dome or sun to be blocked from your selected objects.

[CDRDA]

You could make the ceiling plane you have an emitter and adjust the intensity to get diffuse lighting in the room.

The only other way I can see is to 2 renders of the different lighting scenarios and composite them together afterwards.

Generally I use a combination of hdri and a full ceiling emitter when doing a 3D floor plan. I find an emitter that covers the entire plan really helps even out the lighting across the rooms where there may be a different in exposure depending on amount of natural light coming in.