Color Grading HDRI?

devin066

I'm trying purchased HDRIs with my characters for a beach scene. The character looks out of place I think because the tonal qualities between the photo hdri and 3d rendered character don't match. I tried color grading the HDRI but it still seems off, still seems like combinging a photo and a 3d render. Is there a way to map or grade the HDRI so it matches better the 3d render?

Richard Haseltine

Are you using the HDR for lighting or are you just using it as a backdrop?

devin066

Lighting and the backdrop because its convienient. I did use a higher quality hdri as a backdrop and it "blended" better because it had less camera induced effects.

Richard Haseltine

Perhaps an example image - though one thing to check is that the AutoHeadlamp is off (General section of the Editor tab of Render Settings), and not being set on in the camera

devin066

Here's the image. Turned off the headlamp and that seemed to help but still feels like a tonal difference between the 3D render and the photo hdri.

Richard Haseltine

I see what you mean, though the eveness of the light and the lack of any apparent shadow from the figure doesn't help tiwe her to the backdrop.

Taoz

I have made several renders with that Maui HDRI with different characters, and all have looked fine. It looks to me as if there is some other lighting than the HDRI involved as well, in yours.  Are you sure Camera Light is off?  

I've tried to reconstruct your render with a random character and the Render HDRI scene, the lighting is quite different there compared to yours as you can see.   

 

bicc39

Try this in. render settings-environment there is a box "Environment Mode" with a drop down menu.

Check "Dome Only".

If at this point figure is toooodark  check dome and scene

or

With Dome only incresae slighly Environment intensity

All the Best!