I need these lights to glow?

Get proexr for photoshop. Or 16 bit tiffs at least to allow some freedom to change colours Another tip. When stumped for time, bring in a lighter gamma version from exr .. which you can mask in later .. Kinda like using HDRI images except its rendered files.

Fooch I love your technique! It actually will help on my current project in the office! Tell me what do you think now? I need to add some streetscape and a neighbor soon!

Can you open an exr in photoshop? Because I can't??

Going a different route. Night scene! It just felt all wrong to have the lights glow during a day scene anyway. I still need to do some touching up though. Also thanks Fooch for the help! Comments about this one would be helpful! Antaiwan

No worries. I'm a heavy post guy so a lot of my workflow is post based. Check out the layer structure on the attached image previously. I would duplicate the layer, blur it and set the blend mode to softlight or screen. Layer mask is on the bottom right of photoshop and when you add a layer mask it would be white (which means 100% transparent) , Click CRTL+I to invert the mask to pure black. Then get a brush, soft edges and set it to a say 30% transparency and paint white into the layer mask. This will reveal the "blurred" layer which is on a blend mode that gives the glows. Plus, to make it kick out. (The top layer) A solid black layer in photoshop , set it to color dodge for the blend modes and paint in lights with a 70% brush (white or a tint of yellow) .. You can tune down the lights with fill.

I have problems now with spotting on the side of the house? What should I do about this. Increasing sampling radius doesn't affect it.

Here is an update:

Fooch I don't understand the layer mask step? I'm trying to add a mask but what does reveal all mean and hide all mean under the selection? Trying to paint over the layer mask doesn't show over original background.

I cannot get the glare to work? I'm use rectangle area lights, could this be the reason? Okay I used points lights first and the glare worked. So the area lights are different how? Also fooch thanks for post! I was considering doing that instead but wanted to be sure max could or couldn't do this! Looks great though!!lol!!

I agree with Dave; use the glare shader. Also, make sure that you have those emitters visable in reflections and illuminating the scene. Personally, i'd throw a small photometric there to get the glare to respond correctly. G/L

or turn on glare on the rendering rollout of your render setup dialogue only if you are using mental ray though.

At the moment, Glare and Bloom look promising for Vray 2.0, plus you can correct the amount post production within the frame buffer.

or turn on glare on the rendering rollout of your render setup dialogue only if you are using mental ray though.

Try this. Duplicate your base layer. Blur it by a good amount until the edges of your image blur out, switch to softlight. Add a layer mask to it and invert that mask. Paint your mask over the lights. To give more "punch" to it, make a black layer. Set the layer to colour dodge. Then use the brush tool at say 30% - 70% transperancy. Make sure the edges are soft. Paint it in. Control glow amount with your "fill"