Lighting this scene was harder than I expected. Way too early on I started experimenting with lighting and post-processing, which was a mistake. It was fun, but it took a few hours on the total that I could’ve spent elsewhere. I ended up with something too bright looking, I was in too much of a rush wanting to see the end result I guess, but it did help me to figure out what I didn’t want. I experimented with different light setups, but ended up deleting it all and used a skylight and a directional together with volumetric fog.

Keeping the lighting setup simple really improved the scene a lot. After adding just the skylight and directional light the scene was too dark, I already had a collapsed / open roof, so I removed parts of the ceiling where I wanted the light to hit the paper press and the wall behind it. Adjusting the environment to the directional light helped to make the lighting look more natural, instead of using a lot of point lights to fix darker areas. In the end, I think there are about four soft point lights to help bring more attention to the centerpiece and the doors behind it.