lighting problem help?

[Johnny]

Hi..

I'm trying to arrange lights for this lamp such that the lamp appears to cast good shadows in the room, AND so that the base of the lamp isn't blasted by light. green arrow shows the area I'm talking about..

Tried a bunch of things, including 2 spot lights..one which doesn't "see" the lamp and one which does; no matter what I do, I get this same sort of blasted-out look you see here, no matter how I vary the intensity of the lights. What I'd like to have is, of course, good shadows, and a natural falling off of light on the base from top to about mid way down the base, where the light rays make a tangent to the curve of the base. Yes, I've monkeyed with the light cone (spotlights) and the fuzziness of the cone.

Maybe I'm attacking the problem wrong..any suggestions for solving this? Lowering the intensity of the original lamp-seeing light too much leaves me with weak shadows and much less convincing scene.

Thanks..I'm keeping on this one.


http://www.bluemitten.com/lamp.jpg

[Captain Obvious]

You could try to turn down the diffuse and specular settings for it. That would reduce it, most likely.

[Johnny]

You could try to turn down the diffuse and specular settings for it. That would reduce it, most likely.

that does have an effect, but it seems to be "all or nothing" with respect to both casting shadows *and* lighting the lamp base. what I mean is, that to get believable shadow and light cast into the room, I have to overexpose the top of that lamp base.

I have been experimenting with several lights, each of which either sees or doesn't see the lamp, but getting confusing, inconsistent results

Anyone who's been down this road, sure appreciate a little help!

thanks

J