Exposure Control Settings Reference

Exposure control helps to convert real-world luminance values into a realistic image.

When rendering an image, exposure control (or tone mapping) is just as important as the lighting and materials used. Exposure control mimics the human eye response to luminance values with regard to color, saturation, contrast, and glare. Use the following settings to adjust the exposure of a rendered image.

Setting	Description
Exposure Value	Overall brightness of the rendered image. This setting is comparable to the exposure compensation setting in cameras with automatic exposure. Enter a value between –6 (brighter) and 16 (darker). The default value is different for each lighting scheme.
Highlights	Light level for the brightest areas of the image. Enter a value between 0 (darker highlights) and 1 (brighter highlights). The default is 0.25.
Shadows	Light levels for the darkest areas of the image. Enter a value between 0.1 (lighter shadows) and 1 (darker shadows). The default is 0.2.
Saturation	Intensity of colors in the rendered image. Enter a value between 0 (gray/black/white) and 5 (more intense colors). The default is 1.
White Point	Color temperature of the light sources that should display as white in the rendered image. This setting is similar to the White Balance setting on digital cameras. If the rendered image looks too orange, reduce the White Point value. If the rendered image looks too blue, increase the White Point value. If the scene is illuminated with daylight, use a value of 6500. If the scene is illuminated with incandescent lights, match the White Point value to the color temperature of the lights (see Initial Color Parameters), or start with a value of 2800 and adjust it up or down as necessary to achieve the desired results.