I love Blender…
…and it’s main shader, the Principled BSDF is really good at creating any base look, from metal to ceramics and glass then all the way to mud.
But bad lighting makes for bad looking renders. The best way to make your renders look good is to get as close to real world lighting as possible. It’s a fact. It’s why HDRI maps are so popular for lighting a scene. They’re already real. But, even though there are studio environment HDRI’s sometimes you want to simulate the lighting in a studio with what you have in Blender.
To do this you need to have a good idea about how a studio lights it’s scenes. So I thought I would show you the simple and efficient way to use Blender’s area lights to simulate a realistic lighting setup.
Studio lighting can start with a single light, which can be all you need for a beautiful portrait, to something huge and elaborate for a car shoot. A product shot, particularly of something like, say, a lamp or a food mixer, can be achieved with as little as three well placed and correctly powered lights.
Take a look at the video below to find out more. Better still, subscribe to the channel and you’ll see a new one of these every week. Sometimes a “One by One” where we talk about what each part of blender does – at the moment we are concentrating on modifiers – other times tutorials on specific things or quick tips to make your life easier.
You want to see something not here? Then let me know in the comments. I’m always keen to help out where I can.
Take care and stay safe.