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I have been having to use IBL lighting studios recently because I have some white semi translucent sss objects on my model. See attached previews for what I am talking about. The only way I have found them to clear and look correct is to use IBL to light my scene. The problem I keep having with these is that the lighting is very dull and has no contrast compared to standard emitters. Everything comes out very flat looking. Almost as if I was only using skydome. I would show the images I am getting, but they are under nda at the moment.

Has anyone else had any luck with studio hdr ligthing where the contrast is similar to using standard emitters? Here is a link to the free studio hdri if anyone wants to try them out. At first I thought maybe it was the size of the emitters in the hdr causing everything to be flat, but I am not sure how to scale it down. In the viewport the hdr is huge around my object. I have only used #18 and #19 so far. Maybe I should try something like #1 that has smaller emitters to see if that helps?

Quick image of the HDRi's:
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/552/studioimages.jpg

HDRi Pack1: http://zbyg.deviantart.com/art/HDRi-Pack-1-97402522
HDRi Pack2: http://zbyg.deviantart.com/art/HDRi-Pack-2-103458406
HDRi Pack3: http://zbyg.deviantart.com/art/HDRi-Pack-3-112847728

I've been using these for some time now and they work perfect for me. Because HDR Light Studio is still too expensive for me, I have to get around with these, but i found that
in many cases they are just perfect.

I often try to avoid using 18 and 19 because they have such a big "top light". That could give that (maybe unwanted) flat look.
Most of the time i use 20 and 21, and sometimes 17 or 23.

For a free pack i think their great!!

Tok_Tok wrote: I often try to avoid using 18 and 19 because they have such a big "top light". That could give that (maybe unwanted) flat look.
Most of the time i use 20 and 21, and sometimes 17 or 23.

Good suggestion. I did not even notice the tops of 18 and 19 have such a large white area that might be causing this problem. I will try the ones you suggest and see if that helps.

I like to use 12 also. It gives nice highlights with that circular "emitter".

I am trying 21 now and the result is much better compared to 18 and 19. The overhead ceiling emitter must have been causing the skydome look. 20 and 21 should work well to bring out the sss materials and I can still have a few standard geometry emitters with multilight to throw on some stronger highlights where needed. I wonder why only HDRI will clear sss. I hope that is something that can be improved in the future somehow.

the best I saw are these :
http://www.hdri-studio.com/

David Solito wrote:the best I saw are these :
http://www.hdri-studio.com/

Wow those are a lot of money for just a single image. Can this not be done in photoshop by making a 32 bit file filling some rectangles white and blurring the edges? Maybe there is more to it I am missing. If so I suppose you could always pay for 1 then clone stamp the emitters wherever you want them.

In the free pack i downloaded too, the reflection are not so good because this is just illustration. With the hdri-studio, the reflection are more realistic i think.

The difference is in the creation method. The expensive ones are made from multiple exposure photos, while the free ones look like they were created in a 3D environment, or worse yet, painted. Who knows, they (the free ones) may even be 8 or 16 bit images converted to 32 bit...

I think hdri_studio ones were made in real sudio env. with a spheron cam... this is why they're so good..