The HDRI Handbook 2.0

The HDRI Handbook 2.0

by Christian Bloch
Released January 2013
Publisher(s): Rocky Nook
ISBN: 9781457179334

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Book description

! BONUS DVD ONLY WITH THE PRINT EDITION (NOT AVAILABLE WITH eBOOKS) !

In 2007, The HDRI Handbook was the first book to present this revolutionary new field to a larger audience. These days HDRI is a fully mature technology available to everyone. Real estate and landscape photographers have adopted it as part of their regular workflow, it has become one of the hottest trends for ambitious amateurs and creative professionals alike, and the modern movie industry would be completely dysfunctional without it.

Now The HDRI Handbook 2.0 redefines its own gold standard. It has been completely rewritten and is packed with practical hints and tips, background knowledge, reference tools, breathtaking artist portfolios, and inspiring interviews. The book includes dozens of new step-by-step tutorials. Beginners will get a methodically solid introduction and advanced readers will be able to refine their technique to perfection.

Topics include:- Understanding the foundation of HDRI- HDR software comparisons and evaluations- Capturing HDR images: today and tomorrow- Tonemapping for creating superior prints- HDR image processing and compositing- Shooting and stitching HDR panoramas- Image-based lighting and CG rendering

2.0 updates include:- New cameras, sensors, and HDR beamsplitter rigs- Open Camera Controller for endless auto-bracketing- Correct RAW pre-processing and ghost removal- Dozens of practical, easy-to-follow tutorials- A structured approach to tonemapping, inspired by Ansel Adams- Set etiquette and tips for capturing HDR panos for visual effects- Seven artist spotlights showing unique perspectives on HDRI- Seven crossword puzzles: a fun way to test yourself

! BONUS DVD ONLY WITH THE PRINT EDITION (NOT AVAILABLE WITH eBOOKS) !

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Table of Contents
  5. Foreword
  6. Introduction
    1. What you can expect from this book
    2. What’s new in this second edition?
    3. A Brief History of HDR
    4. What HDR Means Today
      1. At this point we can distinguish between two types of HDR.
      2. Five advantages of HDRI for professional image editing
    5. Road Map
  7. Chapter 1: The Background Story
    1. 1.1 Basic Questions
      1. 1.1.1 What is dynamic range?
      2. 1.1.2 What was an exposure value again?
      3. 1.1.3 How can we use EVs to measure the dynamic range?
      4. 1.1.4 Isn’t dynamic range an audio unit?
      5. 1.1.5 Ah… bit depth! So 32-bit images are HDR images, right?
      6. 1.1.6 Tell me then, what is HDRI?
    2. 1.2 How We See the World
      1. 1.2.1 Adaptation
      2. 1.2.2 Nonlinear response
      3. 1.2.3 Local adaptation
    3. 1.3 How Lifelike Is Film Photography?
      1. 1.3.1 The chemistry that makes it work
      2. 1.3.2 Where the chemistry is flawed
      3. 1.3.3 How about analog postprocessing?
      4. 1.3.4 What’s wrong with digital?
    4. 1.4 Traditional Digital Images
      1. 1.4.1 Let’s talk about bits.
      2. 1.4.2 Great, that’s math 101. But how about images?
      3. 1.4.3 Born to be seen through gamma goggles
      4. 1.4.4 Limitations of this output-referring standard
      5. 1.4.5 More bits
      6. 1.4.6 Nondestructive editing
    5. 1.5 Splitting the Bit
      1. 1.5.1 Seeing is believing
      2. 1.5.2 Rethinking color management
      3. 1.5.3 So, HDR workflow is better than RAW workflow?
      4. 1.5.4 But what is the immediate advantage?
    6. 1.6 Output Media
      1. 1.6.1 The death of the cathode ray tube
      2. 1.6.2 The chicken-and-egg problem
      3. 1.6.3 On into a bright future
    7. 1.7 Chapter 1 Quiz
    8. 1.8 Spotlight: Trey Ratcliff
  8. Chapter 2: New Tools
    1. 2.1 HDR File Format Reviews
      1. 2.1.1 RAW Formats (.raw/.nef/.crw/.orf/.dng/ …)
      2. The Good, the Bad …
      3. … and the Ugly
      4. Where is our savior?
      5. Okay, so does it make sense to shoot in RAW format?
      6. But does it make sense to archive my RAW pictures?
      7. 2.1.2 Cineon and DPX (.cin/.dpx)
      8. How to file a film negative
      9. Unfortunately uncompressed
      10. 2.1.3 Portable Float Map (.pfm/.pbm)
      11. A big dumb space eater
      12. 2.1.4 Floating-Point TIFF (.tif/.tiff/.psd)
      13. Whatever you want it to be
      14. Has all the features, but none of them reliable
      15. What it’s good for
      16. 2.1.5 Radiance (.hdr/.pic)
      17. Accidentally founding HDRI
      18. The magical fourth channel
      19. More range than we’d ever need
      20. So when should we use this format, then?
      21. 2.1.6 TIFF LogLuv (.tif)
      22. Made to match human perception
      23. Using TIFF LogLuv in practice
      24. 2.1.7 OpenEXR (.exr/.sxr)
      25. 16 is the new 32
      26. Compression and features
      27. Update: Current state of EXR support
      28. 2.1.8 High Dynamic Range JPEG (.jpg/.fjpg)
      29. The story of ERI
      30. The way of FJPEG
      31. The future of JPEG-HDR
      32. Are we there yet?
      33. 2.1.9 Windows JPEG-XR/HD Photo (.wdp/.hdp/.jxr)
      34. 2.1.10 Private Formats
    2. 2.2 HDR File Format Comparison
      1. 2.2.1 Size matters!
      2. 2.2.2 Conclusion
    3. 2.3 HDR Software Reviews
      1. 2.3.1 Mac OS X
      2. Just look, don’t touch!
      3. 2.3.2 FastPictureViewer Codec Pack
      4. 2.3.3 Adobe Bridge
      5. 2.3.4 XnView
      6. 2.3.5 Bracket
      7. 2.3.6 Photosphere
      8. 2.3.7 HDR Shop
      9. 2.3.8 Picturenaut
      10. 2.3.9 Photomatix Pro
      11. 2.3.10 FDRTools Advanced
      12. 2.3.11 Hydra Pro
      13. 2.3.12 HDR Expose
      14. 2.3.13 HDR Express
      15. 2.3.14 Dynamic Photo HDR
      16. 2.3.15 PhotoEngine
      17. 2.3.16 SNS-HDR Pro
      18. 2.3.17 HDR Photo Pro
      19. 2.3.18 HDR Efex Pro
      20. 2.3.19 Fhotoroom HDR
      21. 2.3.20 CinePaint/GIMP
      22. 2.3.21 Photoshop CS5
    4. 2.4 HDR Software Comparison
      1. 2.4.1 Bottom line
    5. 2.5 Forgotten Something?
    6. 2.6 Compositing Software
      1. 2.6.1 After Effects
      2. 2.6.2 Fusion
      3. 2.6.3 Composite
      4. 2.6.4 Nuke
    7. 2.7 HDR Plug-Ins
      1. 2.7.1 ProEXR
      2. 2.7.2 OpenEXR Alpha plug-in
      3. 2.7.3 Tonemapping Plug-Ins for Photoshop
      4. 2.7.4 Lightroom Plug-Ins
      5. 2.7.5 32 Float
      6. 2.7.6 Magic Bullet PhotoLooks
      7. 2.7.7 Filter Forge
      8. 2.7.8 Atlas
      9. 2.7.9 Ginger HDR
    8. 2.8 iPhone Apps
    9. 2.9 Chapter 2 Quiz
    10. 2.10 Spotlight: Luke Kaven
  9. Chapter 3: Capturing HDR Images
    1. 3.1 Digital Imaging Sensors
      1. 3.1.1 The Problem
      2. Getting a better minimum signal
      3. Evolution
      4. 3.1.2 CCDs and Orange Trees
      5. 3.1.3 CMOS Sensors Are Different
      6. It’s getting tight in there
      7. 3.1.4 Backside Illumination
      8. 3.1.5 High Gain – Low Gain
      9. 3.1.6 Digital Pixel Sensor
      10. Beyond photography
      11. Prospects
      12. 3.1.7 Spatially Varying Exposure
      13. 3.1.8 Super CCD
      14. A remarkably different sensor
      15. New direction
      16. Convincing the market
      17. 3.1.9 Beamsplitter and Dedicated Optics
      18. 3.1.10 Quo Vadis?
    2. 3.2 Bracketing and Merging HDRIs
      1. 3.2.1 Exposure Bracketing
      2. A word on analog
      3. What is in your backpack?
      4. Camera settings
      5. Shooting brackets
      6. Double-check the histogram!
      7. So, how many exposures does it really take?
      8. Ghosts and other fundamental issues
      9. 3.2.2 Faster, Further, Automatic!
      10. Shooting with autobracketing
      11. Bracketing order
      12. JPEG or RAW?
      13. The double-burst trick
      14. Handheld capture
      15. Tripod capture
      16. Don’t touch this
      17. Tethered shooting
      18. External Bracketing Controllers
      19. Hacking your camera
      20. Bracketing comparison
      21. 3.2.3 Calibrating Your Camera
      22. What the camera response curve is all about
      23. Does that really work from just looking at plain images?
      24. Gamma or self-calibration or predetermined curve? That is the question!
      25. Shooting a reference sequence
      26. Good old HDR Shop shows the camera curve
      27. Calibration today
      28. 3.2.4 Pre-processing RAW Files
      29. Lightroom 4 Update
      30. 3.2.5 Merging to HDRI
      31. Less or more? Crisp or smooth?
      32. Weighting: Trim the fat!
      33. 3.2.6 Alignment Strategies
      34. Median threshold bitmap matching
      35. Manual corrections
      36. Pattern recognition
      37. Wrapping up
      38. 3.2.7 Ghostbusters!
      39. Optical Flow
      40. 3.2.8 Inspection Time
      41. Exploring HDR images in Picturenaut
      42. Navigating Photoshop in 32-bit mode
      43. HDR viewer in Photomatix
      44. 3.2.9 Pseudo HDRI from a Single RAW File
      45. No detour necessary!
      46. 3.2.10 Batch Me Up!
    3. 3.3 Cleanup in Photoshop
      1. Don’t throw it all away yet!
      2. 3.3.1 Dust and Object Removal
      3. 3.3.2 Perspective Correction and Cropping
      4. Perfectly straight is not always the answer
      5. 3.3.3 Perfect White Balance
      6. No limits!
    4. 3.4 Chapter 3 Quiz
    5. 3.5 Spotlight: Michael James
  10. Chapter 4: Tonemapping
    1. Back to normal
    2. 4.1 Hello Operator?
      1. 4.1.1 Global Operators
      2. Exposure and Gamma
      3. Logarithmic Compression
      4. Photoreceptor
      5. Equalize Histogram
      6. In a nutshell
      7. 4.1.2 Local Operators
      8. Photomatix – Details Enhancer
      9. Photoshop – Local Adaptation
      10. The Frequency Domain
      11. Decomposition & Recombination
      12. In a nutshell
    3. 4.2 The Art of Toning
      1. 4.2.1 Disciplines and Objectives
      2. Natural toning
      3. New impressionism
      4. Haze removal
      5. Texture extraction
      6. Real-time rendering
    4. 4.3 Best Practice Tips
      1. 4.3.1 Seven Aesthetic Considerations
      2. Details attract the eye
      3. Never underestimate your audience
      4. Don’t be afraid of the dark
      5. Size does matter
      6. Define your output medium
      7. At night all cats are gray
      8. Texture versus lighting
      9. 4.3.2 Systematic Approach with Zones
      10. Enter the zone system
      11. Call them by name!
      12. 4.3.3 Beware of Common Artifacts
      13. Halos
      14. Tone reversal
      15. Noise boost
      16. Oversaturation
      17. Flattening
      18. Webbing
    5. 4.4 Workflow Examples
      1. Calibrate your monitor today!
      2. 4.4.1 Monumental Landscape (with Photomatix & Photoshop)
      3. 4.4.2 Rear Window of Room 822 (with PhotoEngine & Photoshop)
      4. 4.4.3 Urban Exploration and Grunge Looks (with HDR Efex & Photoshop)
      5. Keep a straight face
      6. Further down the rabbit hole
      7. 4.4.4 Two Steps Forward, One Step Back (with Anything & Photoshop)
      8. 4.4.5 Manual Dodge-and-Burn Techniques (with Photoshop)
      9. Advanced techniques
      10. Moving pictures
      11. The final frontier
      12. 4.4.6 Painterly and Stylized Looks
      13. 4.4.7 Toning 360 Panoramas
      14. In a nutshell
    6. 4.5 Chapter 4 Quiz
    7. 4.6 Spotlight: AntoXIII
  11. Chapter 5: HDR Image Processing
    1. 5.1 Taking Advantage of the Full Dynamic Range
      1. 5.1.1 Day for Night by Blocking Light
      2. 5.1.2 Understanding the Color Picker
      3. 5.1.3 Painting with Light
      4. 5.1.4 Color Grading with Levels
    2. 5.2 Effect Filters the More Effective Way
      1. 5.2.1 Motion Blur
      2. 5.2.2 Glow and Bleeding
      3. Glow in After Effects
      4. Bokeh effects
      5. 5.2.3 Vignetting
      6. 5.2.4 Film Looks
    3. 5.3 Common Gotchas
      1. 5.3.1 Will It Blend?
      2. Add is the new Screen
      3. Stay on the safe side
      4. 5.3.2 Beware the Curve Inversion!
      5. 5.3.3 Eighteen Percent Gray
      6. Edge case
      7. Three words: linear color space!
      8. Perceptual mid-gray in the real world
      9. In practice
      10. 5.3.4 Safe and Unsafe Resampling Filters
      11. 5.3.5 Don’t Be So Negative!
      12. In a nutshell
    4. 5.4 Chapter 5 Quiz
    5. 5.5 Spotlight: Kirt Witte
  12. Chapter 6: Panoramic HDR Images
    1. 6.1 Pano Lingo
      1. 6.1.1 Field of View
      2. 6.1.2 Image Projections
      3. Spherical map/latitude-longitude/equirectangular
      4. Cubic map/horizontal cross/vertical cross
      5. Cylindrical map
      6. Angular map/light probe
      7. Other projections
      8. Comparison table
      9. 6.1.3 Yaw, Pitch, and Roll
    2. 6.2 One-Shot Cameras
      1. SpheroCam HDR
      2. Panoscan MK-3
      3. Civetta
      4. HDR-Cam
    3. 6.3 Mirror Ball Technique
      1. 6.3.1 Looking into a Mirror
      2. But that’s not really 360 degrees, is it?
      3. Got balls?
      4. Ball on a stick
      5. 6.3.2 The Shoot
      6. 6.3.3 Putting the Panorama Together
      7. Merge to HDR
      8. Problem areas
      9. Stitching the balls together in Photoshop
    4. 6.4 Segmental Capture
      1. 6.4.1 Basic Premises
      2. Sectors must overlap!
      3. Turn around the nodal point!
      4. Shoot consistent exposures!
      5. 6.4.2 Getting the Right Gear
      6. Tripod
      7. Lens
      8. Fisheye lenses
      9. Circular or full frame?
      10. Panoramic heads
      11. Universal spherical heads
      12. High-precision heads
      13. Fisheye heads
      14. Robotic heads
      15. 6.4.3 Finding the Nodal Point
      16. First axis
      17. Second axis
      18. Fisheye lenses and the nodal point
      19. How accurate does it have to be?
      20. 6.4.4 Planning for the Right Angles
      21. How many sectors do we need?
      22. The routine rule of thumb: Don’t part anything!
      23. Dealing with the sun
      24. 6.4.5 The Shoot
      25. Camera settings
      26. Photographic workflow
      27. Light probe workflow
      28. Take notes
      29. Now shoot as fast you can!
      30. Consistency is your friend.
      31. Make yourself invisible.
      32. Shooting the nadir
      33. 6.4.6 Putting It All Together
      34. Which way to go?
      35. 1. The old-school way:
      36. 2. The careful way:
      37. 3. The hybrid way:
      38. 4. The quick way:
      39. Get organized!
      40. 6.4.7 Direct HDR Stitching with PTGui Pro
      41. What are those mysterious control points?
      42. Good and bad control points
      43. Workflow alternative
      44. 6.4.8 Removing the Tripod
      45. Before or after tonemapping?
      46. 6.4.9 Hybrid Stitching Workflow
      47. Batch HDR merging for panorama stitching
      48. Double-check and refine
      49. Why HDR?
      50. Some miscellaneous hints
      51. 6.4.10 Big, Bigger, Giga
      52. GlacierWorks
      53. Preparation
      54. Autopano
      55. Finishing up
    5. 6.5 Skydomes
      1. Shooting fast like no other
      2. Unwrap and be done with it
      3. Rescuing a hurried shoot
    6. 6.6 Comparison
      1. Which technique is the right one for you?
    7. 6.7 Panoramas and Visual Effects
      1. 6.7.1 New Opportunities
      2. What to shoot?
      3. 6.7.2 Set Etiquette
      4. Pack your bag with redundancies.
      5. Talk to the AD.
      6. Be fast and efficient.
      7. Go in after a successful take.
      8. Be ready.
      9. Capture the lights.
      10. When your big moment has come, don’t panic.
      11. 6.7.3 Virtual Camera Pans
      12. Where to go from here?
      13. The big guns
      14. 6.7.4 Pano Reprojection
    8. 6.8 Chapter 6 Quiz
    9. 6.9 Spotlight: Greg Downing & Eric Hanson
  13. Chapter 7: Image-Based Lighting
    1. 7.1 Principles of CGI
      1. Modern times
      2. 7.1.1 Traditional Rendering
      3. Faking it all together
      4. Negative lights
      5. Shadow mapping
      6. Textures and ramps
      7. 7.1.2 Physically Based Rendering
      8. Radiosity
      9. Photon tracing
      10. Unbiased renderers
      11. The basic premise of them all
      12. Physically plausible materials
      13. 7.1.3 Rendering with Natural Light
    2. 7.2 Brute Force Simulation: A Feasibility Study
      1. The basic ingredients
      2. Where does the environment image go?
      3. Eyeballing the camera
      4. What we put on the table
      5. Crowd-sourced learning experience
      6. What we really learned from this
    3. 7.3 Advanced Setup Techniques
      1. 7.3.1 Keeping It Straight
      2. Why do my HDRI renderings turn out so dark?
      3. The root of the problem
      4. Linear workflow: Strip the gamma from LDR images!
      5. Take the linear workflow to the next level!
      6. Cheater’s workflow: Put the gamma into HDR images!
      7. 7.3.2 Compositing Is Your Friend
      8. Keep your render buffers!
      9. Tweaking reflections
      10. Ambient occlusion—a pass like a poem
      11. Deeper and deeper
      12. Finishing touches
      13. 7.3.3 Sample Wisely: Split the Light!
      14. Why are my HDRI renderings so noisy?
      15. The universal trick for optimized sampling
      16. Reflections
      17. Background
      18. Bigger backgrounds
      19. How to handle the background ball
      20. Flip it!
      21. Place it by the camera!
      22. Shadow catcher
      23. Beware strong sunlight
      24. Break out the essential lighting components: direct, diffuse, and specular.
      25. 7.3.4 Smart IBL
      26. Back to the one-button solution
      27. A universal pipeline tool
      28. Are you a collector?
      29. In a real VFX production
      30. Creating and editing sIBL sets
      31. It’s all open and free
    4. 7.4 Need More Space?
      1. 7.4.1 HDR Video Light Probes
      2. Capture setup
      3. Pre-processing
      4. Easy going in 3D
      5. 7.4.2 Blend Multiple HDR Panos
      6. 7.4.3 Reconstruct the Set in 3D
      7. New-school automation with point clouds
      8. Manual reconstruction from a panorama
    5. 7.5 Light Rigs
      1. 7.5.1 Extracting Lights
      2. LightGen
      3. Importance sampling
      4. LightBitch
      5. Ye good old spinning light trick
      6. What else is cool about light domes?
      7. Artist-driven light rigs everywhere
      8. Dome Lights
      9. 7.5.2 HDR Cookies
      10. Grabbing a light
      11. Pimp my light!
      12. 7.5.3 HDR Cards
      13. Breaking out light cards
      14. Capturing studio lights directly
      15. Playing your cards right
      16. Back to reality
      17. Universally useful
    6. 7.6 Painting and Remixing HDRIs
      1. HDR Light Studio
      2. In a nutshell
    7. 7.7 Chapter 7 Quiz
    8. 7.8 Spotlight: Paul Debevec
  14. Appendix
    1. 8.1 Glossary
    2. 8.2 Cheat Slips and Useful Charts
    3. 8.3 Recommended Literature
    4. 8.4 Last page
    5. 8.5 Thanks!
    6. 8.6 Index

Product information

  • Title: The HDRI Handbook 2.0
  • Author(s): Christian Bloch
  • Release date: January 2013
  • Publisher(s): Rocky Nook
  • ISBN: 9781457179334