MAKE YOUR LIGHT REAL
The realism commandment goes for other values, including lights. A skylight or a sun will have vastly more power than the brightest lightbulb. Bear this in mind when setting up dome lights and fill lights such as soft boxes. If you set a realistic intensity for your sky and electric lights when lighting an interior for instance–where interior and exterior lighting work in tandem–you are far more likely to end up with a render that looks real than if you eyeball these values.
I often hear viz artists say they have a hard time dealing with burnouts (a dramatic overexposure of some parts of the scene) when using real-world sun or sky intensities for interior renders. The truth is, photographers have to deal with the very same issues in high-contrast situations. Our advantage is we can render high-dynamic range images that have enough color depth to let us deal with burnouts in post and recover information in highlights. Even so, any exterior visible through windows in an interior render just has to be overexposed. Perfectly uniform lighting may be an artistic goal, but it will not feel photorealistic (though many photographers will deal with this by merging different exposures). The shot below shows a realistic balance of interior and exterior lighting, with the exterior overexposed and featuring a colder light (two softboxes illuminate the interior to help balance the lighting, as clearly visible on the beams)