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I am starting to work with math nodes more often and came across something I don't understand fully. When you preview a value node that is set to a value of 1, the result is not pure white. If I crank it to about 3-4, then I get pure white.

Example of Behavior

Why doesn't 1 result with maxed out RGB values?

Thanks for any help.

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    $\begingroup$ I think once the value goes beyond 1 it goes into HDR range. Go to EEVEE, turn on bloom, and set the value to anything higher than 1 (the higher the better the example - try 50) to see what I mean. $\endgroup$
    – Christopher Bennett
    Commented Feb 18, 2021 at 1:04
  • $\begingroup$ Your'e absolutely right Christopher, I also noticed something else interesting. It doesn't actually reach true pure white until you set the value to 15. You can check this by using an eye dropper colour picker. $\endgroup$
    – Nascent Space
    Commented Feb 18, 2021 at 1:08
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    $\begingroup$ Go to Color Management (scroll to the bottom of the properties editor you have open) and switch Filmic to Standard. $\endgroup$
    – scurest
    Commented Feb 18, 2021 at 1:09
  • $\begingroup$ I think Scurest hit it on the head. It's the view transform that's making the color appear to be non-white. $\endgroup$
    – fmotion1
    Commented Feb 18, 2021 at 1:12
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    $\begingroup$ Welcome to color space, you can stay as long as you like. $\endgroup$
    – Allen Simpson
    Commented Feb 18, 2021 at 2:06

1 Answer 1

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Start by reading this link:

Render with a wider dynamic range in cycles to produce photorealistic looking images

Done reading the whole thing? Don't skip the link. Come back when you are done.

As you would know by now, when using filmic as color space you are working with a much wider dynamic range, and what you call "white" is not at a value of 1, but at 16.19

You have two options:

  • Keep filmic as color transform in the color management section and work with larger values.

  • Set the view transform to "standard" and use a much smaller range, where 1 will be "white". Note that this might result in oversaturated colors and might not look as pleasant or "photorealistic"

Read also:

White background with filmic blender

and maybe this one too:

Make texture visible in sunlight

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  • $\begingroup$ Thank you. I just read the link. It's great information to know. $\endgroup$
    – fmotion1
    Commented Feb 18, 2021 at 3:30

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