Image as light source

I am new to blender have watched some tutorials and now i am trying to make a indoor scene. At the moment my window is a plane with a picture. I have selected emitter and color image texture. My problem is that if i increase the light strength the color gets brighter. Is there a way to show the original picture in rendered view instead of the ugly brighter one?

The original image


rendered image with strength 20

Mix two Background nodes, Fac(tor) set as Camera Ray. One Background will give light, another adjust for viewing only. You can change Brightness/Contrast and even Hue/Saturation on the same texture output for that Background channel.


Same can be done with two Emission nodes for image plane.

Much the same effect as Eppo’s, just to show you an alternative way.


Thank you this solved my problem.