For the lighting setup, I knew we will end up with only one light source since the place was abandoned, so no torches or fires etc. I have two key concepts when I approach a new lighting setup both of which are equally essential: Less is more! Its important to not overdo things and just slightly add more…play with values and settings before adding more things that start to crowd the scene and become hard do manage. Always look at and learn from reality! Its a cave? You still see something? Why? Learn why sometimes one lightsource can illuminate a huge area if the conditions are right. How can you use your given tools best to add as less as possible but to the greatest effect. Because thats mostly what happens in real life as well when it comes to light.

When I approach my scenes like this, I can make sure that I end up with a manageable setup that stays mostly true to what you would see in real life. Sometimes however, you either want to tweak things more towards something stylized or surreal, or there are technical limitations starting to happen. Thats the moment I mostly start introducing helpers of all kinds. This can be additional fill lights or hidden geo that helps with light bouncing. However, I really try to fake as less as possible and only use what normally would be there anyways.

So for the throne room, all of this meant that we would have one strong keylight coming through a hole in the ceiling and it had to hit the throne to put focus and some kinda halo of grace on it. It also needed to bounce around so much that it was enough as the only lightsource in the scene. Also, in a dark environment like this, its important to have good values and not a lot of textures that are too dark. The definition here however, should come from the lighting.

These are unlit and lighting only shots: