Retail interior

[unclebim]

No, I am not exporting from SU. This is Twilight rendering, it took about 12 hours and 150 passes per image at this resolution.

The most important thing is that I save the ready render as three separate images with three different camera exposition settings, say 0.8 - 1.0 - 1.2. Then I blend these with the exposure blend script in GIMP, this makes an HDR image. The I run a tone mapping script (does some color correction) and a local contrast maximizing script, then eventually a subtle sharpening if appropriate. I like the result, at the end the images have lot of detail in highlights and shadows and good contrast. This is everything I do in post-pro. I did not do noise reduction as it was not needed, the renders were not grainy.

I hope this is useful info.

Regarding the style it is very decorative with wallpapers and decorative paints (Oikos), mirrors. It proved effective for the retailer (shoes and bags - good looking and cheap China import). The first store is in an old tobacco warehouse and replicates the wooden beams that are still present in the gallery outside the store, the second is reminiscent of a theater.

For the visualization I tried different ways to get a gold mirror and at the end I put a face in front of the mirror and I painted this face and made it 5% opaque.

The lights are all IES, the main are some metal halide from GE, and those under the shelves are fymoro's IES No.10.

[Fletch]

can you try comparing this technique to saving the render directly as and HDR format image? (just type "myimagename.hdr" when you save the file... save it at Exposure1 Gamma1 when you save it) then tonemap the 2 different HDR files, the one created with 3 images stacked versus the directly saved HDR image.

can you post back here with your results of that test?

[unclebim]

I shall try when rendering the next scene, I tried to save as .hdr last time but for some reason the software just did not save the image so I was left with the .jpg files only.

[unclebim]

A test render for another retail interior. Comments and critics are welcome. Shopping bag handles, shoes and cloth colors are obvious to-do's, but I suppose there are other problems that I am already missing after all these hours of work.

[Fletch]

Difficult to critique!
Floor = no reflection?
Lighting design - why these? and - if these, why not align them with the direction of the space to distribute light more efficiently?

[unclebim]

I don't like glossy floors, but this one definitely needs some reflection. In reality it will be a laminate flooring. I shall change the template used because the specular map applied to it actually kills the reflection, or I shall remove the spec map. Thanks for making a point of it.

The fluorescent lamps are unfortunately present and the client wants to keep them although we shall try to persuade him to change them. So far I have to consider them.