Which techniques are there to enhance rendered images?

[kraal]

adjusting curves and balance,
adjusting brightness and contrast,
adding blur

anything you would do to a photo

[mangolass]

I think the biggest is Compositing ~ rendering more than one layer or pass from the 3D scene then putting them together and manipulating them in 2D. Compositing gives more control over lighting and texture and things that you get jsut using a 3D program only.

LT

[berniebernie]

a tad of graininess using noise. doing beauty work (locally editing brightness, contrast, glares etc... possibilites are really endless)

It's always nice to add a proper frame as well, and crop your picture neatly.

[FraGiLe]

1. and most important : Render out elements (passes : ie. shadow,hightlight,depth...)

2. Composite the passes and modify the layers according to the look you wish (i.e. blurring shininess for a dream-like look etc...)

There is no way you could achieve this with a all-in-one-rendering to put it simple..

[suztv]

You could do a whole host of treatments to your final rendered piece. Usually I render out an item in TGA format so that I can get the transparency as well as have the final image flat.

I think that what you do to your image ultimately depends on what you plan on doing with it. I always mess with the hue/saturation, and the levels as well as curves. Add noise or a layer of translucent white to create a "Hazy" effect. Sharpen it, blur it whatever suits your needs. A good source for ideas might be photography forums and magazines.

Good luck! :)

[Jack Youngblood]

As Suztv has implied, having some sort of idea as to what you want to achieve is where you should be starting. This can often come from answering the simple question: what is the most important object/issue in this composition? having answered this you can work backwards and apply some of the techniques covered.

I also find that 3d renders are often lit/modeld etc on an object by object basis leading to a certain 'bityness' in the image. Some large 'uber tones' can deal with this as well as local integrating.

When adding tones try painting them on a separate level set to Multiply (very soft brush, very small flow). When lightening the same except set the layer to Screen.

This technique is best used for adding tones as opposed to shifting them which is best covered by curves.

[KawaTaki]

Thanks alot for all the tips! I've gotten some pretty nice results, though I will continiue trying to enhance it even further :D

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