POV-Ray Tips: Cameras and Lighting

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POV-Ray Tips, Tricks, and Techniques	Lighting: How To Make It Good?


Michael Paul writes:		I've been using PoV-Ray for a while, and I understand completely how it works. My problem is that my scenes always look bland and unrealistic. I think most of my problem is the lighting. Usually I use one light source, located to the upper left of the camera. I've also tried using a spotlight. The one scene I've made that I actually consider good uses two pointlights, pretty much across from each other. What can I do to make my scenes look better?
Martin Roth offers this trick:		Try using a spotlight located at the same position as your camera, pointing at the same position as the camera is looking at. With this you get the effect of ambient lightning but only in a selected area (defined by the radius of the spotlight). Because the light source is at the same position as the camera you won't see any shadows. This is another way to smoothen shadows cast by other light sources (much faster than area lights).