V-Ray for Maya
Raw Light
This page provides information on the Raw Lighting Render Element.
Last updated 18 September 2025
This page provides information on the Raw Lighting Render Element.
Overview
The Raw Lighting Render Element stores the effects of direct lighting on scene objects with no diffuse components or GI contribution.
This is useful for adjusting the brightness of direct lighting during compositing.
UI Path: ||Display Render Settings button|| > Render Elements tab > Raw Light


Attributes
Enabled – When checked, the render element appears in the V-Ray Virtual Frame Buffer.
Deep output – Specifies whether to include this render element in deep images.
Filename suffix – The text added to the end of the rendered file, when saved as a separate file (e.g. myrender.rawLight.img).
Apply color mapping – Applies the color mapping options specified in the Color Management rollout of the VRay tab in the Render Settings window to this render element. This option is enabled by default.
Denoise – Enables the render element's denoising, provided the Denoiser render element is present.

Common uses
The Raw Lighting Render Element is useful for changing the appearance of direct lighting after rendering in a compositing or image editing software. Below are a couple of examples of its use. In this set of render elements, direct lighting affects the back of the alien figure the most due to a strong back-light in the scene as well as the top of the circular machine above the figure.

The Raw Lighting Render Element

The Original Beauty Composite

Brightened Lighting Render Element

Brightened and tinted lighting Render Element

Brightened Lights

Raised and tinted Lights
Underlying Compositing Equation
vrayRE_Raw_Light x vrayRE_Diffuse = vrayRE_Lighting
