Not quite there

[nickchun]

Hi All
I find after quite some time striving for photorealism I am still not quite there yet, and I don't know why. I have taken care over materials and model but the attached image to me still looks like a render. I have avoided interior lights and used only the sun and an HDRI, the scene was rendered over the weekend on Easy 10. Interior+, yet it still looks a bit soft and lacking sharpness. The doors are all in a satin/matt paint. No depth of field was used. It doesn't stack up against the likes of this download/file.php?id=10228 by Dan_ddd
Any suggestions?

Thanks

Nick

[tuna57]

nickchun, I think what your missing is some interior lighting. What really pushes the image in the link you posted over the top is the combination of the interior lighting combined with the sunlight coming through the windows. I would maybe add some pendant lights over the island and see where that takes you. Would be curious to see what TW material templates you have assigned to everything. Except for the island counter top and faucet everything is real flat like they all have the same reflective quality. That may be just because of the low light level or material templates that are close in reflective quality? I'm sure Fletch or Chris will be along at some point to give some more specific help than I can give. Bye the way even if it's not quite where you want to be it's a real nice modeling job and render. Wish my "not quite there " renders looked this good.

[nickchun]

Thanks for your comments. All of the materials are at least satin finish some with bump maps. I even put a very subtle bump on the walls to emulate imperfect plastering. Some of the best results I have had in the past were only lit by daylight(old job attached below) and I find combining interior lights with sunlight even more unrealistic, but maybe you are right about the extra lights. I do usually render for clients with more interesting lighting but don't always like the results(last image).
Perhaps I need to make the satin paint a bit more shiny but I need to be careful not to mislead the client on the actual finish.

[Mike1158]

I like your renders a lot, nicely done.

[Chris]

In my opinion, it's not the amount of lighting but the coherency of lighting. The outside lighting doesn't really match up in terms of intensity, direction, and color, with the light that is coming into the interior. In your follow up image (of the white kitchen), the lighting through the window actually seems more realistic even though you can't actually see anything. When photographing interiors, usually your exposure is much higher than out-of-doors, and this causes the view through the window to become overexposed and blown out so you can't see anything anyway!
Also, though I can't say for sure, it looks like the horizon where the grass meets the trees is too high by a little bit.

Otherwise, add beveled edges where you can so your edges aren't so sharp. And I think it's more appropriate to add some variance, meaning move the stools just a bit so they don't all line up, move the coffee cups a bit, and add little detail items like a spoon on the counter, a book, etc. The little details that you would see in a photo.

All in all, it's a really great render. The only real issue is the exterior lighting. And even with that, it's still great!

[Fletch]

Really nice images, great work!

Good tone mapping can go a very long way after you have a good rendering to bring it up to a new level.

Here are two tone mapped versions I ran quickly. The soft light overlay technique is from the post-pro tutorial in the Red Carpet section. The high key version is from Topaz Labs plugin for Photoshop called "Adjust". The setting used is just called "high key" but I overlaid it over the original image at 66% opacity.

While tonemapping fixes the "look" of the image, I know that it can also play havoc with colors of materials in the images, and with architectural images for clients it's paramount that one retain the original material colors.

[Sergio]

I think the main problem is that it looks too "static", specially the stools. Bevel the edges of the stool legs and increase the IOR so you get some reflection. Also as suggested, move them around a little bit as they would be in real life.

[nickchun]

Hi Guys, Sorry about the delay replying, I have been on holiday for a couple of weeks. Thanks again for all your input and encouragement.

Chris, I take your point about the lighting and the HDR image position, There are also roof lights which is where the sunlight is coming from.
With regards to bevelled edges, I have put the bevel modifier on the paint for the stools and woodgrains, but they could maybe have a higher IOR to highlight the bevel.
And yes, I forgot to mess up the accessories a bit to make it more natural, I was concentrating too much on the materials.
Fletch, I still need more practice with tone mapping, thanks for your examples.
I will try to tweak it and post again when I catch up after my holiday.