Default settings all too bright

As I try to get to grips with learning D5 I’m finding that by default everything is way too bright and I’m having to turn everything way down. For example, using the standard D5 midday HDRi I’m setting ‘Light’ to 0.1 and ‘Sunlight Intensity’ to 0.1 also, which makes me wonder under what circumstances people would use the higher settings - is it because I only do outdoor scenes that I have to turn it all down?

You can set the general effect of the environment through HDRI or geo-sky. Also try turning auto exposure off.

Hi Ryann, I’ve been changing all the settings trying to find the right kind of set up that I can save and keep using for landscape projects, but I just don’t understand why all the settings are so bright by default.

I agree, the default sun settings are so bright and make everything so shiny too. Did you find any way to reduce this? Great for californian sunset architecture but not so good for UK!

I still don’t know the reasoning behind the default brightness, I can’t imagine there’s a single user who uses those settings, but it became less of a problem when I found settings I liked and stored them for future use.

hello, have you turned off auto exposure mode?

Snipaste_2025-02-03_10-07-14

when on scene will automatically balance the light, may lead to scene too bright for this, turn them off and update the parameters for the scene

Hi @jonathanwall82,

I apologize for the inconvenience. Have you tried turning off the autoexposure settings as NgTrung suggested? Please let me know if this addresses the issue you are facing.

Thank you!

Yes the auto exposure is probably the first thing new users turn off, my main point is that it doesn’t seem to serve a purpose as it is always too bright. Even without auto exposure I have to reduce the exposure manually as it seems that exterior scenes are all generally too bright.

Exposure is affected by many different factors.

  1. Auto Exposure: Make sure it is always turned off. Users often disable it but forget to update the parameters, leading to a misunderstanding that it has been turned off when it actually hasn’t.
  2. Skylight (HDRI): Environment lighting is significantly influenced by HDRI. Some HDRIs may be overexposed or too bright for exterior scenes. Consider replacing the HDRI if you encounter issues such as excessive brightness or overly dark shadows.
  3. Sunlight Intensity: Increasing the sun intensity too much can cause surfaces to be overexposed, resulting in harsh shadows and an overly bright scene.
  4. Other factors like LUTs and Exposure: What is your current exposure setting? In interior scenes, users often place fewer lights and compensate by increasing the exposure and sun intensity. However, when switching to outdoor scenes, this can lead to overexposure. LUTs also have a significant impact.

If possible, please provide specific images so I can better assess and guide you more accurately. These are just a few possible causes—consider experimenting with these adjustments.