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I used that set in this scene using Iray. It is lit by Dome and Scene and uses the sun for lighting.
NOT AN ENTRY
@Angelik M
I like your lively scene very much. There has been really good advice, so I will only add a grain of salt :)
I think that her eyes deserve a "special treatment" to make them look more natural. I struggled a lot with finding the right settings until I found this tool:
https://www.daz3d.com/eye-clock-pose-control-for-genesis-3-and-8-male-s-and-female-s
It helps you to generate a completely natural look when aligning / adjusting a figures eyes. I use it with every figure.
Perhaps some kind of accent lighting can help to draw the viewer's attention to the little bird, but this would require not only adding some light for the bird, but also changing / adapting the lighting of the whole scene, to change importance and weighting. So perhaps this is not what you want :)
this is my second try. have changed some things.
DAZ_ann0314 was going to answer but she must have gotten busy with other Daz Business.
The rules do say 2 entries but we are flexible on that point. As long as no one goes overboard we are allowing you to post more than 2 images. Some months inspiration hits you with lots of ideas and others you may only have 1.
I hope that explanation helps.
I have not used 3Delight in a long time but I would highly recommend AOA's lights. From what I remember they allow a lot of flexibility and are not as resource intensive.
Hopefully @Linwelly will be along to give you some pointers and ideas what those errors messages mean.
My second experiment in trying to create soft shadows that coexists with strong highlights
Dedicated to dtrscbrutal :)
Thank you for inspiring me by your beautiful colors. It came over me. I had to do this. Today.
Not an entry
Bronze
Thanks for your kind comments and encouragement @Fisherman_B
For this version, I had added a special spotlight (besides the initial one hidden behind the girl's hand) for the hummingbird... yet I guess it is soooo subtle it does not let itself noticed
Ohhhhh the eyes... I had loved drawing eyes since I was a little child... thanks for the link... this is the thing: I enjoy so much drawing that somehow I have most of the time considered rendering the first step... this is one of the things I love these challenges... help me a lot to be careful about details than otherwise, I will correct/transform in a series of postwork immersion! I was used to enjoying doing architectural renders when I was younger. Discovering there is another world where I can also create my own characters is amazing to me! I'm so glad I'd found DAZ 
You are right, the focal point is vital in every composition... I guess somehow I lost it a little bit when I started to play with the way the different point lights are casting a warm light over the enveloping translucent cloth... I wanted the eyes of the viewer to dance following that movement while gently looking at the girl's curves and tattoos (perhaps wondering about who she is and how is it that a hummingbird felt attracted to her softness)... I hope I can manage to integrate the idea I have about the background next week too...
@Kismet2012, thanks for clarifying this to me and for being flexible!!!
Will go to sleep now... have a wonderful midweek everyone!
Gorgeous image @Fisherman_B, it looks human to me (so natural-wow!)... your images (and comments) 'light up' the actual artistic possibilities within DAZ ... thanks for sharing and for the inspiration.
@Fisherman_B In reference to "Bronze". Wow! Incredible! I don't think I have ever inspired anything that beautiful before. I am truly honored.
That is one of the best portraits I've seen. Great work!
To answer your earlier post; I am glad, in a very deep way, that my image has had an affect, I think that is a goal of every artist and is very validating to hear/read.
"Activation" is what I call an "impact piece", very overt in its presentation. I always did have some concern that the image is too incoherent. This is one of those works that has kind of taken on an energy all its own. I was faced with the choice of fighting against it and imposing order, or embracing it. I chose to just go for it while keeping the focus on lighting for the monthly challenge. I always saw the chaotic imagery as a reflection of the character's emerging consciousness, this being, robot, android, cyborg, clone, etc., has been called into existence and is, at least in that moment, not happy about it. I am trying for a Frankenstein's lab (1931 version) feel, but instead of Tesla Coils and electrical bolts I am using light and reflection, while trying for a high-tech futuristic vibe.
I don't think the image works in small format either, the tones and palette are too subtle on much of the figure.
The sphere screen left serves several purposes, mainly reflection of light, and to a lesser degree to fill in the reflections screen right and empty space screen left. I can definitely see how it might be too dominant in the scene. I used the carbon composite shader on the sphere to play up the tech thing, and I just like what that shader does with bright light. I needed the reflection there because few of the figure's surfaces facing the camera are directly lit, that is mostly reflected or bounced light.
I think you make several valid points in your post, lots to consider. I had an idea for a steam/corona look as well and did do some work using the bloom filter early on. I will revisit it with a fresh eye.
I really appreciate the input, and especially the dedication on such a wonderful image, thank you so much!
It would be great to have more info on how you lit "Bronze", I am very interested in how you achieved the reflection off her lower eyelids. Great work!
@Shinji_Ikari_9th Sorry, somehow I missed your post the other day. I like the changes you have made. It is a very cool scene.
If wanted, I can see where you could add a bit of energy to the scene by having the character interacting with some of the lighted controls, I have used lighted surfaces interacting with the figures hands to good affect in the past.
I think you did a great job with the blue light white light on the figure, very realistic and subtle.
@Fisherman_B Your final version of "Lady Moonlight" is, in a word, awesome! Well done.
@Angelik_M Very nice improvements! That image is coming along nicely. The humming bird is better but possibly could still improve a bit. I encourage you to keep working with the lighting, IMHO the lighting really does make or break an image.
@LaPetiteVerita I know almost nothing about 3delight, sorry I can't help.
I think you have a great start on your image though, and hope you sort out the problems.
@bastian2560 I like the brighter light, appears more like daylight to me. Moving the figures closer does seem more intimate as well. I miss the fish.
@frank1998220 I think your lighting is pretty solid in that image. Perhaps a tweek or two to remove the shadow along the screen left of the face. (unless wanted) Softening the light coming from screen left could reduce that. The focus on the face seems a little soft to me, and the pose a bit stiff. Any post work?
Just personal taste here, I would find a more natural, or dynamic pose aligning or even bridging the thirds guide (think face on one x spear tip on another x) more appealing.
That armor and those wings are a playground for lighting, great choice!
Thank you!
Many / most lighting setups for "real" photography contain 2 or 3 light sources, a reflective plane and a backplane. I tried to mimic this with the tools we have in DS (this is an iRay render). One of three light sources is often a more or less frontal light, but I tried a different approach because I did not want a "passport picture" atmosphere. More a tiny little mysterious touch. I created three emissive objects with different shapes to have a vivid result. On the left side (looking through the camera) there is a plane, on the right side a sphere, so there is some variation in light. I wanted a nice effect on the hair, so I created a third object above her head. I played with different shapes, but I could have saved time if I had used some logic - a hemisphere matches the heads shape perfectly :) All objects have their emissive color set to pure white. The colors come from playing with the temperature parameter. Now the missing part was some more detail specularity, mainly in her eyes. So I created a dome texture (100% black) and painted a white shape in the upper half. You can play with different shapes, this is important if you want them to be fully reflected by the eyes. In my case I just wanted the specularity on the moist parts of the eyes, shoulders and cheeks, so a banana-like shape was good enough. When you paint, you have to imagine how the texture will be "wrapped" on a dome. The result is a mix of these 4 light sources, mainly their position, intensity and temperature. It is funny to see how the single lights don't look special at all, but the combination can be spectacular. I did quick renders of all 4 light sources alone, with their intensity and temperature values that I used in the final render.
Left light source
Right light source
Top light source
Dome
Hope this helps!
Version 3
I found I had the Advanced Spotlight so I switched the two spotlights in the scene to advanced ones instead. The overhead one has the Gobo headlight setting. I have also lightened the floor colour to show up the shadow better.
@kismrt2012. thanks love the back ground.
@dtrsbrutal The fish, well i put them here i put them there and they didn't seem to fit, so they ate them
. the sun light i added in post (what ever it's called)
@dtrscbrutal Thanks for your feedback. I'm glad to read that you like the lighting that I have going on, that is something that I sometimes fight with to get right. I tried to make some adjustments to make use of your idea of his interacting with the keyboards but it might not be that good in this version, I should be trying to get some rest right now for work later (luckly it's my short day so I have a little more time to try to get some sleep after this post.) Anyway here's version F.
@LaPetiteVerita I warned you I haven't used 3Delight in ages. I had to go digging into some pretty deep recesses to try and find some info. It wasn't pretty but I hope I managed to drag out some information you will find helpful.
First: Are you aware there are tutorials from Age of Armour for his lights? He really provides some great information and tips. You can find the one for his Distant Light here and his Spotlights here.
These were fast test and not very pretty but hopefully will point you in the right direction.
Test 1 was using the default lights and settings with Genesis 2 figures posed and clothed as close to your image as I could manage.
Tests 2 and 3 used AOA's Advanced Distant Light with the light moved to different angles
Test 4 uses AOA's Advanced Spotlight in a classic 3 point light system, ie: Key Light, Rim Light and Fill Light. As you can see I forgot to turn the shadows off on 2 of the lights.
Test 5 uses both the Advanced Distant Light and the Advanced Spotlights
I hope this helps.
the clipping is from the arm being too far across the fix settings may have a hard time moving it that much without making the armor sit way away from the body
Here is version 2. A much more streamlined approach with the added corona effect, achieved with liberal use of point lights. There are things I like more with this version and things I don't. I do think it is a much more focused image however.
@Fisherman_B Thanks for the write up. Good info. I have only recently started rendering images in layers. I find it gives me incredible control of the image and, so far, reduces render times by quite a bit too.
@sueya You have the light working now. Looks like you may need to work on the angles to establish the direction of your light source. Good progress though.
@bastian2560 Those fish did look kind of tasty.
@Shinji_Ikari_9th I like where you are going with that.
Hi everyone... well, after almost two days with my Mac completely dedicated to the rendering processes (working with translucent and emissive materials delaaaaaaays it a bunch... I dug in and yep, my Mac does not have any way to work with Iray as expected as it does not have any separate video card (?)
I bought my baby in 2012!) so I woke up this morning and was curious about the time consuming on rendering emissive materials one by one and then merging them all with my raw base image (have to admit, I didn't want to do any postwork in this challenge, yet considering my circumstances, it is absurd to remain so perfectionist and stubborn - there are many other artistic projects-read 'livelihood related ones'- I'm involved, so, I need to prioritize, I guess 
) ...
I also changed the frame to be a smaller one (and still the noise is present-my apologies, again) this is the result:
Mildness Version 03 (raw-without emissive materials)
I used the outdoors background (sunset dome), played with its values and replaced the given background with an edited image I'd managed to make (although I've pictured an almost sunrise moment and somehow the moon I'd set does not show
). Have to admit also, that I don't quite well understand how a dome works (giggles) and kept my distant light active in the scene (changed its direction to work with the shadows).
Today, I worked on this, all day long!
Mildness version 04 (layered emissive materials composite postwork in CPS). I'd merged all the images (03 additional layers for the clothes) as normal (just changed the opacity), probably I will play with other kinds of merging options for my own delight and shared the results as non-entries (if I have time
).
@dtrscbrutal, thanks for your suggestions... I have integrated both yours and @fisherman_b comments (thanks for posting the images on your process!)... morphed my character to enlarge her eyes and modified her expression a bit (didn't buy the suggested tool yet)... now my hummingbird has flown up a little bit also (she cannot remain still
) and now receives more light too (not quite sure which one to keep though)...
About your image... like the focused intention
...wondering if it is possible to make the rays shed some actual light on her skin (?)... hope this helps...
As always, any of your comments are very much welcome! Thanks in advance.. have a wonderfully productive week everyone
P.S. (added) I'd almost forgotten to attach the images...
It is great to see everyone's playfulness with lightning! So glad we are all receiving amazing suggestions...
@ariochsnowpaw, like your second entry too! Wondering if her face would benefit by playing with some accented contrast (?)... hope this helps...
@shinji ikari 9th, I like how your character is now more involved in the scene
Off I go now... (again) have a wonderfully productive week!
ok retrying since I just found the place they state only JPEGs are allowed.
decided to enter this as an example of lighting since I was right in the middle of doing lighting for the scene I'm creating I'm still new to Daz3D 1-2 months almost no library to speak of no plug ins no 3rd party plugins....
this pic [Morning Juice] is done with default lights from Daz3D
rendered in Iray Daz 4.10
no post render alterations besides file type.
Here is my third pass at this. I have modified the lighting somewhat for both submissions. I looked at Fisherman_B and ariochsnowpaw submissions and saw the volumetric lighting and went about sorting out how to do that without resorting to going into Blackmagic Fusion or other post processing. Stumbled upon a youtube video from SickleYield showing how to create the effect within DS. I don't have the perspective to really use it to my advantage, but I did add a touch to the moonlight scene. I looked at the tone mapping settings based on Fishtales comments to others as I never used those before and made some adjustments to both of the renders.
@Angelik_M That is too bad about the noise, but you have really improved the humming bird and how the light falls on the veils.
I understand not wanting to do post work for this challenge, I feel the same, but I suspect a despeckle layer would reduce the problem.
I really like what you have done with the character, looks great.
Thanks for you input on my image, I did try to get more light on the figure but it quickly turned into a mess, blow outs, noise etc. I still want to do more with the bloom filter if time allows.
@dragoneyes002 Very nice image! Looks like you have put in a lot of effort. I like how you have lit you scene, very realistic.
Just personal taste here, I find the shadows the model's face to be very "noir" like, but it doesn't fit with the rest of the scene for me. I find the lamp behind the figure a bit of a distraction, the hard shadows it is making in a room full of softer shadows are drawing my eye.
The amount of detail you have put into this image is great! I also like how you have carried the color red across the image.
@sisyphus1977xx You have made some wonderful improvements to both of your images this month. Great work!
I like what you have done though.
I still think "Moonlight" cries out for a DOF neon back-light.
Would you care to share more about the tone mapping you did?
Another good source for tutorials is thinkdrawart.com.
@Fishtales Thank you for your suggestions on how to reduce render times regarding reflectivity on surfaces, that will be extremely helpful in the future.
@Fisherman_B I don't know how you keep topping yourself but somehow, you do. Both your images were superb! Thank you for breaking down the lighting process you used with "Bronze" in that illustrative way. I also just recently began experimenting with rendering in layers. At first I thought the hair had kind of a feathered/speckled appearance which was off, until I fully zoomed in to full resoulution-and then it looks great.
@dragoneyes002 Yeah the chest armor was too problematic for this scenario, and as @Kismet2012 pointed out it was more of a distraction from the main focal points of the image so I did away with it.
@Angelik M I really like your render a lot and like you described, the flow of the cloth and impression of movement really does guide the eye along the curves of her body quite nicely. I'm not sure if this will help you, but you said you were experimenting with rendering in layers. If you're rendering each layer individually, are you familiar with the "Canvases" option so you don't have to do them one-by-one? (I made a quick pic to help if you weren't already using the "canvases" option and wanted to try). Also as @Fishtales mentioned, you may want to try turning off surface relectivity on any surfaces that you aren't wishing to light up (like the ground) to speed up the rendering.
@dtrscbrutal Both your versions are excellent. My personal preference is for the 1st one as I found the "organized chaos" rather appealing. However the more streamlined 2nd version illustrates the awakening of consciousness more definitively.
@dtrscbrutal the shadow on her face is how people naturally chose not to have the sun directly in their eyes I know the entire face being lit up looks more photographic but its not how people deal with bright light.the lamps are a problem because point light does a lousy job of lighting the actual items (the lamp & table) so there is an extra spot light there just for that creating more light. even had to lose the lightbulb because of the shadows which also meant making the shade almost opaque.
@testingtesterson35 I like your pic nice lighting I'd sugest you keep the arms way forward as people in tight spaces would use the flat of the hands to move Vs the elbows known from crawling under barbed wire which raises the shoulders (something a hard surface above makes a problem)
@dtrscbrutal, noted
I shifted the white point to the warm side, which made the overall lighting cooler in the render. I changed the ISO and shutter speed, keeping the same exposure value, which is essentially no change, but I wanted to verify that would be the case in DS as this is my first attempt at trying to set up multiple light sources in a scene. My emissive planes and the spotlight I used as the key light for the moon all used 5500K to 6500K temperature settings with a blue color, but de-saturated by about 50%, with varying lighting intensities. I want to play with the ISO, shutter speed and f/stop more to see what I can do to the lighting and use some emissive planes as gels with spotlights to see what color effects I can achieve. Aputure has some good cinematic lighting videos, which I have used as guidance. The one I used as a reference for lighting a night scene is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hosNTseoBk4
I have attached my tone mapping settings for my latest version. Thanks for everyone's input, I will see if I can come up with something for the DOF neon version.
@testingtesterson35 Thanks for the input, "organized chaos" lol
love it.
Excellent info graphic by the way.
@dragoneyes002 I suspected you were of the hardcore realism school going by your scene. I tend that way myself with my "reality" based projects.
You may be way ahead of me on this, but have you tried a primitive with the emissive shader applied inside the shade? Though it can be hardware intensive, I've had some good results doing that. The shadows tend to be much softer with that set up.
@sisyphus1977xx I really appreciate you taking the time to write that up. I have just recently started experimenting with it. Good info.
thanks I'll try that at some point always better to know more ways to do something