Buddha - lighting experiment

Esben Oxholm · September 26, 2014, 11:24:21 PM

Hi guys.
I've set a task for myself to experiment some more with alternative lighting.
This is my first experiment:

The great model is found on grabcad:
https://grabcad.com/library/buddha-statue

Please, let me know if you have any suggestions for improvements.

Best regards.

TpwUK · September 27, 2014, 03:32:28 AM

Lighting and textures look great, just can't help feeling the the DOF focus is in the wrong place being on that left hand/wrist area

Martin

Esben Oxholm · September 27, 2014, 05:22:14 AM

Quote from: TpwUK on September 27, 2014, 03:32:28 AM
Lighting and textures look great, just can't help feeling the the DOF focus is in the wrong place being on that left hand/wrist area

Martin

Thanks for pointing that out, Martin. I think you're right.
Here's one without the DOF. Works better I think.

TpwUK · September 27, 2014, 06:27:51 AM

Looks better here too

Martin

feher · September 27, 2014, 10:43:11 AM

Like it !
It's a keeper
Tim

Despot · September 29, 2014, 07:03:33 AM

Nice lighting Esben, looks very stylistic...

J

Esben Oxholm · September 30, 2014, 10:20:43 AM

Thanks for the replies, guys. Much appreciated.

I tried to aim for a different feeling just by changing the lighting. I wanted to create a cold and more uncomfortable feeling.
Do you think I succeeded in doing that, or what could be done lighting-wise, to enhance those feelings? Comments are very welcome

Best regards,

TpwUK · September 30, 2014, 07:57:17 PM

It's actually really hard to portray freezing cold with lighting, using pure whites and blue shadow lights is what they used to do for stage lighting back in the days when i was young.

What you have here is looking pretty good, but i sense spiritual halo more than chilled and cold, but again that could be because of using a Buddah model as the subject matter. So, to try this further, I would go more White in the base metal and use shades of light blue on the curvature and a larger backlight or halo effect to try and capture that frozen atmosphere feel.

As said it's hard to achieve with a still shot, when there is animation or live actors involved then the chance to focus and study is gone and you can get away with more. I would say study some antarctic photos and get those shades of blue working for you, and don't worry too much about burnout from light, just like you get with snow and ice.

Good luck with this self inflicted torture,

Martin

Despot · October 01, 2014, 03:22:44 AM

Hey Esben, here's my take on a cool lighting scenario... if it bothers you me posting images in your thread, let me know and I'll remove it immediately

J

Esben Oxholm · October 03, 2014, 09:37:20 AM

@Martin:
Thanks for your great advice. You have a background in stage lighting?
I tried to follow some of your point. See below for the result. I think myself that it looks more cold already.

@Metal Master:
No problem. Looks cool. A bit to purple for my tasting though

Here's the updated version:

Speedster · October 03, 2014, 09:52:38 AM

I agree that Lord Buddha just does not lend himself to a cold lighting concept- nothing can really break the Spirit connection. My dad was a Buddhist.

And I also have a professional lighting designer background, MANY years ago! It was my major in college. It's really amazing what you can "say" with lighting. We usually used a soft pink and "Grey Lite 14" gels, opposing each other, for most lighting.

Try using a "grey" and "blue" HDR, which you can create using the HDR Edit tools and adding rectangular pins. Or even "white" and "blue". And, just for grins, try "red" and "blue". There should be a base HDR in the KeyShot 5 library. Also, try adding in a plane or two as emissive or IES physical lights, choice of colors, at very low wattage, and turn the HDR brightness almost to zero.

Keep them coming, as this is an excellent teaching moment, as they say.

Bill G

TpwUK · October 03, 2014, 11:16:33 AM

Hi Esben, for sure it's looking better, but those dark grey shadows have got to go, they need to be like a gas flame blue tint. Do a search for shadows on snow to get a better idea of what i am trying to point at. You could possibly get rid of the spiritual enlightenment by creating a fractured ice buddha.

I was part of the lighting crew for the lion the witch and the wardrobe way back in secondary/high school, but just for one year, it was great fun but alas not professional like Bill.

I am not sure if you can achieve your goal with a dark background though, I could be tempted to use the curved backdrop geometry that KS5 provides and set that to be textured like a glacier and then use DOF to get that geometry heavily blurred. I wish I could find time to play with this, but my wife is going through another phase which is taking time from my hands.

Martin

Esben Oxholm · October 10, 2014, 03:02:41 AM

Hi guys. Thanks for you answers.
I actually just started a master in lighting design myself, but I guess it's a bit different today opposed to back in the days

I haven't had the time to look at the cold lighting, but I think I have to rethink it totally. Also, the point about using a lighter glacier-like background seems like a good idea.

I'll give your suggestions a try when I have a few free hours. Stay tuned