Hi eric, that does look like light source shading though - I measured your screenshot with the eyedropper tool in a paint program and those areas are not quite completely black, they're really dark red-brown.


> My lighting was set for a fixed source

When that "Fixed light positions" option is checked, it means that the lights stay in one single location and don't move around with the eye point as they normally do.

You'll probably want to leave that unchecked except for special purposes.


> but when I changed so that none were checked it

What about the drop-down though? In addition to the checkboxes there is also the setting here:



Some of the options in there have less light than others. Try setting it to Lighting style = "Default key + fill lights" or also if that is still too dark for you try Lighting style = "Key + more fill" which is brighter yet.

It's also possible to choose the Lighting style = "Custom key + fill levels" which will show some sliders which you can move towards the light to make the lighting even brighter yet.


I think with your railings though, the ones that are angled to the right just happen to be facing a direction that has less light illuminating them than the other ones, that's why they look different.


- Michael