Bright or Not So Bright

[rcallicotte]

That is the question.

Which illumination works best?  After TG2, both were run through the demo version of PhotoMatix and then tampered with in Paint.NET for varying values of Curves and Levels.

[Will]

depends on the conditions your trying to represent, if its like a mars like place I would go for the first if its like an earth like pace I would go for the second.

[old_blaggard]

I feel like the second pops out the highlights a little too much.

[rcallicotte]

Thanks guys.  I should mention that the ground is supposed to be lava-like, but it shouldn't matter.  The sun in both cases changes dramatically as do the shadows and highlights, based on some of my changes.

I've had some trouble getting an EXR from TG2 to work with PhotoMatix.  Not sure why, but it errors out every time.

[Seth]

1st one looks fantastic to me Oo
could we get a HQ render ?

[rcallicotte]

Seth, I'll look into it, but these took three renders each to run through PhotoMatix.  How large I go might depend on how much time I get to do this.   

[Phylloxera]

I prefer the first !

[Seth]

agree Phyllo
the first one just look amazing to me this size... the light, the atmo, the pov...
i hope calico will do it bigger just to see how it looks in HQ render...

[Mohawk20]

I go for 'not so bright'. It seems more realistic, having less light in a scene, and still be able to see all the details.

[Mr_Lamppost]

It may help to see the original unaltered normal exposure image for comparison.  On the whole I prefer the first one but it does have that flat look often created when adjusting brightness curves.

[PG]

The second one is just more interesting in my opinion but with things like this, you ask ten people you get ten answers. It's a matter of taste with these kinds of images

[monks]

I prefer the first one as a composition, but the second one points more obviously to other interesting techniques that could come from this such as lava, etc.

monks

[Tangled-Universe]

This is a bit difficult to chose, the second image has to strong contrasts and looks a bit saturated compared to the first one.
The first one has more realistic, softer and subtle lighting. Better contrasts. Though the background mountain in the second image is better than the first, in my opinion.
A bit of both would work best

[rcallicotte]

Thanks for your opinions.  I'll think about all of these things.  It helps to get a rounded perspective this way.  I'll try to re-render it this week.

[Tangled-Universe]

I agree with you to ask for 'help'/opinions, but in the end the only thing that counts is what you think about it
Looking forward to see where you're going with this and to see the final result!