Ballroom

[Fletch]

That's a lovely render, dutchess!
It seems you need some spotlights on the happy couple.

be sure to color your lights it lends much to realism... one difference between an amateur and and a pro

To get noise to go away, there are several approaches...
super sampling
double sampling
3rd party noise reduction software
brute force

super sampling means that you render the image deliberately approx. 1.5x to 2x the size you really want, then you resize it when you think it's ready to save... because as you said yourself above, when you resize the image, the noise goes away significantly. supersampling is built in automatically to Twilight, so that anything rendered below 1000px wide will be super sampled to 3x3, anything between 1000-2500px wide is super sampled 2x2, and so by the time you get to large images, super sampling is eliminated... so if you feel you need it, do it manually by rendering larger and downsizing in post-pro.

double sampling is like this:

1. render image at final res (2400x1600) for x amount of time until the clearing seems to be happening really slowly (likely after about 6 hrs or so)... stop image
2. render image at slightly larger than final res (2408x1604) but make sure to maintain exact proportions... so those numbers may be a bad example... render until clearing seems to be slow (again after about 6hrs)
3. resize image 2 to be exactly 2400x1600
4. stack image 2 above image 1 in photoshop
5. set image 2 layer opacity to 50%, or leave it at 100% and set blending mode to "lighten" only.

3rd party noise reduction software is like using something like "Neat Image" for your noise reduction.

brute force:
use net rendering or very fast machine to render for a long time until noise is significantly reduced.

[dutchesse]

Darn, more info I have to stuff in my brain somewhere today :0) so much to learn, so little time...
All the lights are IES files and I always assumed correct coloring is built into the IES file (yes,no?)
I use the "neat image" often but I find that it sometimes makes the picture a bit "off" by taking out some of the detail.
I'll definately try some of the *renderlarge&reduce* PP techniques

thanks,

[Fletch]

IES is the throw of the light, but not the color.
This is a great thread to read.

yet more to stuff into the brain... sorry.

If we are not learning, we are dying, right?