I primarily do daylight exteriors. I use an Hdri skydome and a spotlight with an angle of 179 degrees to simulate a direct sunlight. My spot emits photons. However, I just can't seem to nail the strength of the bounced lighting. To my eye, I simply do not see enough bounce from the ground plane or brightly lit surfaces.
This is what I've tried: Low exponent values (.1 - .9). High photon intensity 16000, 32000. The problem is that I get really hot spots around the dense photon areas, far hotter than any "normal" value in the render. It is as if energy is being added where the light is bouncing which is physically impossible.
I need to match some renders I did with Brazil which my producers are thrilled with but I must use MR in Maya because of heavy animations of both charcters and cameras. Any help here would be a life saver.
Pat Sirk