Realistic Lighting Using Enscape

To create the perfect lighting in Enscape it is best to use different light types such as line, spot, sphere, rectangle, disk in grouped arrangements so as to have more control over the shadows and the lighting they produce.

Outside lighting

To diminish the yellow tones from the sun and the blue tones from the sky it is advisable to bring the sun intensity down to around 20% and enable a clear horizontal and white background. Also, bring the shadow sharpness down to zero.

Fill lights or portal lights

After adjusting the outside light, you can add fill lights made of several line light grouped together. This kind of lighting provides soft shadows and also enough of ambient light.

Detail lights

Just like photographic lights these lights are used just inside the room to enhance the way the final shot looks. You can make a group of multiple rectangle lights and then move and rotate them around the axis.

This allows the light and shadow to spread in different directions. This also helps in enhancing contact shadows (where the furniture touches the floor or where the spotlight touches the ceiling).

In case you have a 3D building which is mostly in the dark you can use a rectangles with emissive materials to bring light to the dark building without creating hard shadows.

After setting up all the lights make sure to set the exposure in the right order so as to not overexpose the image. You can even take a look at the live-render in black and white to have a clear idea of the light and shadow and the light balance of the image. Using this method, you can achieve realistic lighting.