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Bright Diffused

Contrast And Soften Diffuse Edges In The 3D World

You have the ability to control the lighting's effects on the contrast within the area that it shines. The Contrast spinner goes from 0 (normal contrast) to 100 percent. The result at 100 is a completely "contrasty" image, in which the image appears to be extremely blown out. You can use this feature to your advantage by exaggerating the dominant colors of an image and effectively eliminating its more subtle colors. The main benefit of using this versus a Video Post filter on the entire image is that you control where the contrast is overblown (or not) through the light-just as real life.

This can be much more effective and easier to control than applying a filter to the entire image. The same scene rendered with an shadow-casting omni light. The left hand image is rendered with the light's contrast setting at 100. The right-hand image is rendered with your 3D application's contrast filter set at 1.0 (and the light's contrast at 0). Notice how the shadow does not appear in the filtered image. Softening the Diffuse Edge through the spinner of the same name can reduce the sharpness of the region where diffuse and ambient areas meet. At 0, the light produces a normal transition between the ambient and diffuse properties of a surface.

At higher values, it can eliminate sharp edges that can appear under certain, harsh lighting conditions. Note that both the Contrast and Soften Diffuse Edge spinners affect light's illumination characteristics. Although it actually brighten or darken a light, it does alter the way the light is cast, and this can be perceived as brightness changes. A simple test is to render a scene with the light multiplier at five and then another scene with the contrast at 100.

The light looks brighter in either scene, but the results are fundamentally different. Finally, you can now control whether or not a light affects the diffuse and specular characteristics of a surface. A great use for this feature is when you want to use a fill light on an extremely shiny or reflective surface. If the light is intended to be diffuse, you should switch the Affect Specular feature off. That way, you can get the nice general lighting of a fill light without the characteristics of reflecting the source of the light in the specular area of a surface. Omni lights work well for fill lights. When used with Inverse Squared Attenuation and, a new feature to your 3D application, Shadow Casting, the results are extremely realistic.

One caution about Omni lights-especially when it comes to using multiplier values larger than 1-highly reflective surfaces not only reflect the light but also reflect the effect of the light on any surface close by. This can nearly double the intensity and size of your specular highlight. If you encounter this situation, try using a spotlight with a wide Hotspot/Falloff setting. That way, the light is cast in only one direction, effectively eliminating this problem.

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Help with flash photography. Nikon D40x.?

I am taking photo's of some friends children. I very rarely use the flash on my camera, but I may have to with this shoot as the weather is bad and we will have to be indoors and the house is very dark with not a lot of natural light. Is there a way to 'diffuse' the flash on the camera? I would like to have some flash light but not so bright and I don't want the photo's to look like they have been taken using a flash.
Is there some little trick or tip that I can use to over come this problem?

An easy way to diffuse your pop-up flash is pop it open, then wedge a 3x5 card under it so that the flash bounces off the card and to the ceiling. It doesn't have to be pretty, it just has to send the light to the ceiling instead of directly at your subject.

The sock mentioned above will work, but I wouldn't shoot too many with a sock over the flash... it'll get very hot, very fast.

Notion Ink Adam: Diffused reflections after applying matte screen protector