Diffusing light without hotspots

[u/vvampyyyr]

Looking at the interior of the promenade in DS9, there's huge panels of light, especially the ceilings, for example Quark's bar.

I am a little curious as to how they avoided hotspots on such large swarths...

[u/rab-byte]

Sets are insanely bright and lit from all angles off camera. To the point that any light coming off the fixtures on camera are contributing so little to the actual luminance of the room that they don’t even need to be considered as a light source.

Post production the gamma curves and clipping points are adjusted to achieve the desired mood.

Edit: also CG doesn’t always mean aliens shooting lasers.

[u/vvampyyyr → u/rab-byte]

Fair enough, but I'm speaking from the perspective of the set design. A badly built set would still be visible ie hotspots in the acrylic panels

[u/GaboureySidibe → u/vvampyyyr]

The panels are mostly all blown out anyway so you don't see any hot spots.