Best practices for photorealistic exterior lighting

[papaf1]

I've always struggled with getting a good photorealistic look using mental day in a exterior scene, and I was wondering what other people are doing to get a good photorealistic look.

[Richard.Vivanco]

Normally in exterior scenes i uses IBL technique with 2 final gather diffuse bounces.  Not exposure.

In some cases i combine ibl with system daylight

[kgokhangurbuz]

Hi @papaf1 ;

-IBL (Dome / Skylight with panoramic texture, with 32 bit image such as .exr / .hdri) + If any kind of shadow tuning is needed, using a standard light for simulating sunlight.

-Daylight system + Camera Exposure, Environment overrides for reflection & refraction (along with panoramic textures again)

But photorealism relies on many things since this light passes through our eyes and / or camera lenses. So, a little bit of camera effects such as depth of field, bokeh, bloom effects, and tuning highlight burns and contrast after renders are game changers. 

Kind regards;