New Profile Picture and the Power of Lighting (Patreon)

Lighting in DAZ Studio is something I've been struggling with ever since I switched over to iRay rendering in 2017. I've been experimenting with so many styles of lighting but never found a setup that gives me the realistic feel that I want in my renders.

However, now I believe I have finally found a way to light my scenes that adds much more realism. Previously I lighted my scenes using HDRIs, but now I'm manually placing numerous individual lights to scenes to get dramatic shadows and shines.

In the first image you'll see how much of a difference manually placing lights make. Compare the shadows and textures to the second image which uses HDRI lighting (and the same exact models/textures). It takes a long time to set up the lights, but the results are totally worth it. I'm excited to enter a new era of more realistic rendering!