Issues with area lights when rendering interior scenes

#1

Hi, I have an issue that keeps popping up when rendering an interior scene.
For the main lighting I use a directional light, then have area lights from the window emitting photons only.

I keep getting a blown out effect around the window sills. Is this just placement of the lights?
I’m following a tutorial but the tutor doesn’t get this effect. Please see attachments.

The issue is from each of the area lights, the problem goes away when decreasing photons intensity… but I then don’t have enough energy to bounce through the room. :shrug:

Can anyone please give me some advice?
Many thanks.

#2

Hey, I’m not sure what exactly the problem is, but in the past I’ve found final gather for indirect light, combined with a linear workflow often gets nice evenly lit scenes when rendering interiors.

In my own experience, I never had someone actually sit me down explain linear workflows, so it took me some time to wrap my head around it. Depending on what software you’re using, there are a lot of little knobs and buttons that need to be pressed in order for everything to line up (there’s a reason why they call it ‘mental’ ray, haha).

This will help you get started on linear workflows.
http://cgi.tutsplus.com/tutorials/correctly-setting-up-a-linear-workflow-in-maya--cg-17085