Afternoon by the Pool Revised

I suppose something to consider is the response of the eye in these situations. If a large area is in shadow, the eye/brain will compensate and adjust. If the shadows are small compaired with the overall lighting, as is the case in this scene, it maybe closely resembles the impression with have in real life since small shadows in large areas of light will appear darker by contrast and design (of the human eye).

lights After reading the feedback from the other scene my fears are confirmed in that the shadows are a touch too deep. In this scene the shadows depth seems fine and "high contrast" but I really just got lucky that the shadows are hidden mostly behind the models themselves. I know myself that the secondary light levels are the same in both scenes and the levels of the secondaries brightening the shadows are a touch too dark and low energy. It is interesting to note how much easier it is to get away with in this lighting angle.

Aye Agreed. Also, compairing the two, I don't think you have lost anything of any great significance by not using soft shadows. In my own tests, I have found that say, eight weaker lights arranged in a small circle create a comparable soft shadow effect for this scale of image with less of an impact on the render time.

Yes We do agree. The sky is better, too.