Update on image based lighting

Hi all,
As promised, I am posting the last results I got with image based lighting,
especially about illuminance values under a mapped sky. All the explanation
is a bit too long to write it here, so I`ve put it in a page for those who
are interested. The address is:

http://home.att.ne.jp/banana/tiago/radiance/IBL.htm

I`m not sure if the explanation is clear enough, so please ask me if it`s
not.
Next, I`ll be trying to include the sun in the simulations, so I hope to
have more news in the future about this.
Regards,

Santiago.

Santiago Torres wrote:

Hi all,
As promised, I am posting the last results I got with image based lighting,
especially about illuminance values under a mapped sky.

Hi Santiago,

Thanks for taking the time to write that up. I need more coffee this morning before I fully digest all the numbers there, but one statement at the end bears comment:

"One thing to consider is that the camera has a built-in bracketing option that can take up to 5 images, with up to 1 stop increments. If the scene has high contrast, this can be insufficient to capture the whole range, so manual set up might be needed."

I'm actually looking to buy a new camera for the office so that we can use HDR photography for survey work, mostly lower contrast stuff. But I'm wondering, what is the contrast threshold where you would need to go manual? I'm looking at the Canon digital rebel, which only does the three shot autobracket but can separate each exposure by two stops. Greg Ward & I discussed this off-list and he said that that is sufficient for what I'm looking to do. But I assume you're talking about much higher contrast scenes, such as landscapes with direct sun, that would require a manual exposure?

···

----

      Rob Guglielmetti

e. [email protected]
w. www.rumblestrip.org

Hi Rob,

My camera takes 5 exposures, from +2 to -2, so the result would be the same
only with fewer pictures (which can be an advantage) The problem is that the
mid exposure is calculated from the whole scene light. Additionally, you can
set the under/over-exposure option to offset all the bracketing (in my
camera up to 2 stops), so you can get for example from 0 to +/-5.

Still I found situations where this was not enough. Not only daylight,
direct sun and so on, but even in a relatively dark room with only one
bright lamp, the lamp can be out of range. I use the colormeter in osx to
make sure that the brightest zones are below 255 in the darkest picture, and
the darkest above 0 in the brightest. This can be really bad if for instance
you had gone to a remote place to take some images and then back at home you
find out that they`re no good... (I know why I`m saying this)

The best thing would be to test the camera`s latitude (the difference in
f-stops between the minimum and maximum registerable values) so you can
meter the exposure in the highlights and shadows and find out if
auto-bracketing is enough.
Hope this helps. All this is not so complicated, but it`s tricky to explain
in writing (at least for me)
Regards,

Santiago.

···

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of
Rob Guglielmetti
Sent: Monday, November 24, 2003 11:43 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Radiance-general] Update on image based lighting

Santiago Torres wrote:
> Hi all,
> As promised, I am posting the last results I got with image
based lighting,
> especially about illuminance values under a mapped sky.

Hi Santiago,

Thanks for taking the time to write that up. I need more coffee this
morning before I fully digest all the numbers there, but one statement
at the end bears comment:

"One thing to consider is that the camera has a built-in bracketing
option that can take up to 5 images, with up to 1 stop increments. If
the scene has high contrast, this can be insufficient to capture the
whole range, so manual set up might be needed."

I'm actually looking to buy a new camera for the office so that we can
use HDR photography for survey work, mostly lower contrast stuff. But
I'm wondering, what is the contrast threshold where you would need to go
manual? I'm looking at the Canon digital rebel, which only does the
three shot autobracket but can separate each exposure by two stops.
Greg Ward & I discussed this off-list and he said that that is
sufficient for what I'm looking to do. But I assume you're talking
about much higher contrast scenes, such as landscapes with direct sun,
that would require a manual exposure?

----

      Rob Guglielmetti

e. [email protected]
w. www.rumblestrip.org

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