It is important to remember that pre-viz renderings are meant to be a communication tool.

Designers should create lighting renderings that give a general feel for certain moments.

Digital lighting renderings should not be exact representations of what the actual lighting will look like, but they SHOULD be based in reality.

My advice to lighting rendering artists is to keep in mind “where” the actual lighting fixtures will be and “how” they will be focused. Also be mindful of the type of fixtures that might be used.

As a lighting artist you never want to create renderings that are completely impossible to achieve, or light, because if a director or architect sees that rendering and likes it, you’d better be able to actually make it happen.

Lighting renderings are also a wonderful way for designers to explore different options. While working on different lighting cues you might accidentally find an effect or look that you hadn’t previously thought of before.

Read more about digital lighting renderings here.

 iStockphoto Photography Standards: Lighting
By: Matjaž Slanič

Lighting is probably the single most important aspect of photography, and is a huge topic. Every picture you take depends on good light. Mastering the basics of photographing a well-lit subject will help make your images useful for designers in everyday applications. When you know the basics, you can begin to explore the more dramatic possibilities of light: how the angle, power, and warmth of light effects your subject, stimulates emotions, and expresses your creativity.

Understanding light is a lifelong project. For beginning photographers, the key subjects are:

• Proper exposure
• Using and adapting to different light sources (natural and artificial)
• White balance
• Unexpected problems: Lens flares, reflections, and chromatic abberation

Let’s explore these topics by looking at a few examples that aren’t acceptable for our standards: shots that cannot find their warm home at iStock and need more technical improvement before being accepted into collection.

See the rest of the article here: http://www.istockphoto.com/article_view.php?ID=524