Interior vs exterior Lighting/ shadow brightness

Question

Hi all, 
 I have been playing around with creating some still renders, The shadows were too dark so I went to the expert setting and changed the colour of the shadows from a black to a grey. Now the shadows are a good brightness, but the interior of a model now looks too bright as if there are powerful lights switched on. 
 What settings can I used to achive a darker interior whilst keeping a lighter shadow? 
 lighing used = only solar with physical colour, intensity of 60 [356 Lux] 90 cloud, 3 Air Quality. Rendered on Exterior Good, 1800px x 1100 px [about] 
 
 
 Image above = Shadows too dark, interior of wheelhouse looks good. 
 
 Image above = Shadows good, Interior wheelhouse too light. 
 
 [Ignore the different hull colours I've been asked to come up with some colour variations]

Torben · Answer

Hi Myles, 
 That wheelhouse sure looks like it is being lit from the inside :) 
 Or almost like you have a high ambient light on? 
 Upping the indirect bounces might add more darkness? Has worked for me. 
 HTH

Jerry Flynn · Answer

Hi Myles, 
 I would recommend that you change the shadow color back to black. Use interior good to get an extra bounce of light. Make sure on the global illumination tab in the rendering settings dialog that you have Indirect Caustics set to Refraction. 
 My guess is that you are using Exterior Good and Indirect Caustics is set to None which means none of the indirect light from you environment enters the wheelhouse. 
 Cheers, 
 Jerry

Louis van Amerongen · Answer

Have you tried to add an environment? After adding one try to play with the settings (Hi Lux = no shadow, low Lux is only shadow) a little (works good in combination with fast preview). 
 I should try to add this environment (with visible to camera and reflections off). 
 Regards Louis

Louis van Amerongen · Answer

I don't agree :-), 
 Can you try to add the background image as environment (indirect light). I think the feeling of the boat will less cgi.