How to get definition in black pieces?

[Duq]

I've just come back to rendering with Pov Ray and here's my first result:

Umbau 4yg at sunset by Duq, on Flickr

It's not the worst but as you can see, the bogies and undercarriage are just black blobs with no definition. The light settings here are based on Sjaacko's tutorial. I've been playing with other light setups based on HoMa's comments but I keep ending up with that black area.

Any suggestions on improving the light conditions so you can actually see individual parts in the black area?

Thanks!

[Kit Bricksto]

Hi Duq,

I'd imagine that the way you did the lighting is perfectly alright as it looks quite natural. But with the minimal light of your dawn-background comes the disadvantage of having dark areas which is unfortunate for presenting your model but looks realistic to me.

You might want to consider making two pictures. One like this capturing the athmosphere and another one with brighter lighting to show all the details otherwise hidden in shadow.

[THERIZE]

The #4 post from this topic shows asimple way to do it.

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=121924

[legolijntje]

I can't really help you, I don't know very much about Pov-Ray, but this topic contains some information that might be useful.

[JGW3000]

Actually, if you were intending to have a scene back-light by sunrise/sunset illumination, what you rendered is quite accurate IMHO. IRL, once the sun is below the horizon, the intensity of ambient/fill light is much less than that of the remaining direct light, so not surprising the shadow and dark areas got all blocked up. You can probably increase the intensity of the ambient light, or add another light source to provide some fill (perhaps a street lamp off to the side?)