Thread by @LeonAquitaine

Starter GPose hints: Lighting 102 - Outdoors

Now that we know some basic lighting techniques, it's time to wander into the wild!

There's a lot that's out of your control, like weather and natural light. Let's use those to our advantage!

#ffxiv #gpose #gposeguide #gposers

1 - Use supplemental lighting

You can use the 3-point light sources and the Character lighting setting to bring attention to the subject, making it pop from the background.

In the example below, Noemie is pretty dim against the background; so we position a yellow source to reinforce the sunlight, a blue source for the sky, and a cyan source for the pool reflection.

Oh, one interesting thing about water surfaces: While point lights can't cast shadows...
...it can reflect over water surfaces!

(I personally love that effect and need to stop myself from overdoing it.)

Remember how we can use a point light to emulate the light from a glowy weapon? You can do the same to emulate light from sources!

2 - Less is more

Simplify your shots. Visual elements draw attention away from the subject. By using Depth of Field (DoF) you can force background elements to lose focus.

Alternatively, you can look for parts of the background with fewer elements (like the sky, a cave wall, or a dark patch of a forest.)

3 - Weather

Dungeons and open areas have *wildly* different lighting patterns. Don't fight it: instead, try to adjust your sources to enhance the feeling. Overcast weather gives less contrast, same as night shots. On the other hand, Some instances can give very harsh light.

4 - Environment

*Use it*. The fact that you're not locked into place means that you can have better action shots, using the environment to help tell a story.

In some situations, you can find extreme lighting conditions, with high saturation or contrast. It's the perfect opportunity for an out-of-the-box shot.

Also, the Golden Hour is real. Sunrises and sunsets give amazing opportunities for shots.

Here's some information about the Golden Hour:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ho…

Night shots have their own characteristics, but they're basically similar to studio shots. So rim lights and key lights can bring subjects to the foreground, even if they're wearing dark clothing.

Here we see a yellow point light placed exactly where the campfire minion is (no shadows, but that's not a big concern here), together with the setting to tell a story. We also have a white point to the right to reflect on metal, and a bluish point up top to emulate moonlight.

Sometimes the environment *is* the focus. Draw your character away, and let the beauty of Etheirys sink in.

5 - Framing

Look out for structures that can help isolate your character from the background.

Now that I mentioned these points, it's easy to see how (and why) these shots were taken:

Low contrast, DoF isolating from the noisy background, orange point light to Noemie's right, white-bluish point light to the top left.

High contrast, strong orange point light to the right of Louise, and a white point far to the left.

Here the scenario is totally irrelevant (apart from the general grey tone), So ADoF+Bubble, ADoF + Bokeh, a single white point from the sun's direction, and a high Character lighting.

This guide is way less technique-heavy than the previous, but I hope it helped illustrate some ways to benefit from outdoor shots; please share your experiments, and let me know if you have any questions!