If you're looking to illuminate a small area, like a desk or small countertop, consider using an incandescent or fluorescent bulb. But if you need to light up a larger size, such as an entire room or venue, then area lights might be right for you. An area light has its power source and can easily illuminate large areas. Here's everything you need to know about them:
What Is An Area Light?
An area light is a light that illuminates a large area. It is not a point or directional light, so it does not cast shadows. It also cannot be used to create HDRIs, since it cannot simulate shadows.
An area light's shape is often rectangular, but there are no restrictions on its shape or size; you can make an area light as big or small as you'd like!
Why Are Area Lights Important?
Area lights are an important part of lighting a scene because they allow you to light large areas with a single light source. This is in contrast to point lights, which only have one location and can only illuminate objects directly in front of them. Area lights also don't "eat" as much memory as point lights do—they aren't constantly recalculating their position every frame and taking up CPU time that could be used for other things.
Area lights are also more powerful than point lights because they emit more light over a wider area, making them ideal for simulating sunlight or moonlight in outdoor scenes such as those in nature documentaries.
When Do You Use Area Lights?
Area lights are often used in large light areas, such as a whole room or outdoor space. Because of this, they're pretty versatile and can be used in many projects. For example, if you're an architect or interior designer looking to showcase your latest design on your website or portfolio page, an area light would be a great choice.
Or maybe you're playing video games and want to make sure that the lighting fits your game's atmosphere? With some basic knowledge of how area lights work and what they do, it's not hard to see why so many games use them!
As you can see from these examples, there are many ways that area lights can be utilized by both professionals and hobbyists alike—from architecture rendering all the way down to amateur photography enthusiasts who want better quality photos without having any extra equipment lying around their house!
What Are The Benefits Of Using An Area Light?
- Area lights are good for large areas. Area lights can be used for large light areas of an image, like a room or field, without having to make multiple direct light sources. This saves you time and allows you to aim your lighting at specific parts of the scene instead of having to adjust each object's spotlight settings individually.
- Area lights are suitable for soft lighting. If you want something softer than what you would get from a traditional spotlight or point light source, then an area light may be ideal for your needs because it diffuses the intensity of its illumination over a broader area. This makes it easier on your eyes when looking at an image that uses this type of lighting technique because there won't be any harsh shadows on surfaces around where there should not be any shadows (e.g., faces). The results will also look more natural because most things don't have perfect geometry—they have curves and bumps, which can cause hard edges when using other types of light sources.
Conclusion
An area light is a great way to add more illumination to your scene, especially when working with smaller objects. The soft shadows that result from using an area of light can provide interesting effects and help bring depth to your work. If you have any questions or comments about this tutorial, feel free to leave them below!
