Optimize your MODO Physical Sun and Sky renderings

This quick video will explain why disabling clamping on your sun and sky model will give you much more dramatic lighting effects in MODO.

[@robcallicotte5786]

Thanks for explaining this, Brad!

[@davidesoncin2399]

Very very amazing tutorial ;)

[@GabrielPaivaHarwat]

It´s like comparing shooting on JPG vs Raw, same deal, if you want your camera (or Modo camera for this matter) to process your pictures and you are happy with the results go for it, but if you really want total control of your exposure, contrast and want to give yourself the liberty of aggressive post-processing then you must make every pixel gets the whole depth and color range. I had to read lots and lots about it to get my head around that a camera its not like our eyes, it a very complex matter and the way Modo give us HDR imagery is up to every user, if you want to read about it and understand it use it, if you are ok with the default settings you can still get some awesome images. Cheers Modo.

[@mrrichardlewis]

Thanks for the video Brad. I found this really helpful but I still find this approach to exposure really strange in Modo. You say a camera would 'process this down using some kind of tone mapping'. But I don't think that's really true. A Camera would control the amount of light hitting the sensor using Shutter Speed and the Aperture of a lens. The photographer can also adjust the sensitivity of the sensor using ISO. Setting input white levels and input black levels seems a very foreign concept for a photographer, and also someone who's been using Vray and Maxwell Render. II'm really enjoying using Modo, but this is one of the quirks I don't understand!

[@GabrielPaivaHarwat]

In fact cameras do a whole lot more to images when they are saved. Depending on the format you choose your camera will clamp intensities to give you some sort of approximation to reality, or more to say, how we kind of see things. I think ronbrinkmann.com/ say it best, every time you take a picture you only capture a segment of reality. From the framing, lens, exposure to color bit depth, compression and formats, every decision we take throws away some information so its gets less and less real and more and more art. If your objectives are fulfilled with what you get from an image then it wont matter how much information got wasted in the process. Its all about segments fulfilling necessities. HDR is an unseen realm, those values cannot be reproduce by any screen, in fact not even the human eye can see the whole intensity (note: we CAN see the colors variations but we CANNOT see the values). Tone mapping is a non destructive way to sort of show some parts of that whole range so the image can be seen in an equalized way. Oh, and when you crank up the white levels you are just like moving the center of the displayed intensities but Modo still gives you the whole range, if you save your image in a 32-bit format then you can use filters to let you choose the balance you feel appropriate.

[@GabrielPaivaHarwat]

Ok, i get your point. But here's the deal. Modo offers you two types of render sort to say. One, the default one, an 8-bit JPG type of imageries, thats when lights and environment intensities are clamped. And a full HDR images rendered when you unclamp all the intensities and color. If you use the 8-bit clamped then you can swing the lights values to achieve the desired exposure, but you can't translate those values to exposure and iso because the lights inside that scheme have non real values. You could but those values would be a lie, intuitive but completely out of reality. They could create a 32-bit camera, sort to say, with those parameters that could be used only when the intensities are unclamped, and even with a lot of work the values would be a mere simulation. Heres, again, what Modo offers. A point and shoot 8-bit jpg type of imagery or a raw like format full 32-bits that is in fact many times better of what you could get out of the best raw capable camera even bracketing 4 different exposures. Bottom line is that you can open Modo's 32-bit imagery on any HDR software and use exposure, aperture and iso parameters at will, just like if would do with any raw footage.

[@someonewithsomename]

Thanks for the video, Brad! I like, that if finally came out, that was a great question for me! 10 minutes to dramatically increase your render quality, cool!

[@GrzegorzWronkowski]

7:18 Photoshop Lightroom or Aperture has no support for .exr 32 bit files