How to keep detail in clouds behind the sun?

[AC5LT43R]

As you can see, the parts of the clouds that aren't receiving any light directly from the Sun look very flat and boring. Is there any way to brighten these parts up a bit so they have more detail? I'm rendering pretty high res (24k x 13k) so I would like as much detail as possible.

Thanks

[archonforest]

Second sun? or perhaps another light source/spotlight?

[AC5LT43R]

Hmmm of course, I'll give it a go...

20 minutes later I've given it a go and I just seem to blow out the image.

Here's my settings for the fill light

[archonforest]

I cannot really tell u which slider to change there to get the wanted result. Otherwise we have several pro dudes around who I am sure will help u out with your problem. In the meantime just try to tune the sliders/numbers down and see what happens.

Btw your work(automotive) is impressive

[Oshyan]

Second sun, while a quick and easy approach, is seldom a really "good" solution. I feel like it's far too popularized here (no offense archon, I know you've just been learning this stuff of late, and lots of people use it as a trick here).

I'm not the expert on clouds that I'd like to be, but I think I'd start by messing with the light scattering settings in the cloud node(s) (Lighting tab). You may also experiment with some closely varied noise functions on the Shadow Function or other Function inputs on the Function tab.

- Oshyan

[russe166]

Try 'Light propagation' and 'Light propagation mix'

http://www.planetside.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Cloud_Layer_v2_-_Lighting_Tab

[N-drju]

Maybe you can decrease cloud density a little bit? That would perhaps allow more light to shine through.

Lovely sky color though!