About the Lighting Environment and Background Properties window: Lighting tab

Use these controls to adjust environment lighting in your showcase scene.

Lighting Image: Reload

Click to refresh the viewport if you make changes to the HDR image using a graphics editor.

Lighting Image: Lighting conditions in image

Select from presets to emulate the lighting conditions of the HDR image. For example, if the scene is indoors with artificial lighting, select Interior: Artificial.

A preset indicates if the environment represents sunny day or night conditions, and makes the accent lights or luminous materials appear realistic. It sets the exposure value appropriately to describe the light conditions. The lighting image contribution and directional light contribution are set to standard values corresponding to the exposure value but may need a bit of adjustment.

Lighting Image: Exposure value for light conditions

Describes the intensity of the incident light in the environment. It should be set according to the light conditions, not to calibrate the environment. To adjust the environment, use Lighting image contribution and Directional light contribution. Once the environment is adjusted to appropriate light conditions, make the viewport subjectively brighter or darker using the brightness slider in the Task UI or the Compensation slider in camera properties.

Lighting Properties: Adjust Directional Light and Shadows

Opens the Directional Light and Shadows window so you can adjust the way sunshine is simulated in the scene (shadow direction and so on). See About the Directional Light and Shadows window.

Lighting Properties: Lighting image contribution

Adjusts the amount of light from the HDR image (sky). In other words, affects the light that is cast by the environment surrounding the object, such as the sky and the ground. Impacts both lighting and background. If you were to set this to its lowest possible value, the environment and background would go dark, leaving only model visible (lit by directional light).

Lighting Properties: Directional light contribution

When you record an HDR image with a standard digital camera, the sunlight may not be recorded, or may not be bright enough. This control enables you to supply directional light contribution, which simulates sunlight. You also need this type of light to have object-on-object shadows. (However, in ray tracing you can get the shadows using global illumination.) If you were to set this to its lowest possible value, it would look as if the sun is being blocked by a cloud.

Lighting Properties: Rotate lighting and background

Rotates the whole environment, including lighting (image-based lighting, reflections, and shadow direction). This also changes azimuth, but not elevation. The azimuth value in the Directional Light and Shadows windows is automatically updated. Moving the environment without having to move the model makes it easier to add things to it later.