For 3D artists this could be a big deal:
The Maya loader for Smart IBL presets is now safe to use on a Mac. It can also hook into mental ray's IBL node, sets the key light accurately, and has lots of stability improvements. It even comes with a shelf icon. In other words: sIBL on Maya is ready for prime time!
sIBL on Lightwave has finally matured to version 1.0 as well. Mac support, 64bit-safe, support for LW9.3's fancy new cameras, and stable like a rock. Now, that's something!

sIBL of the month!

Why don't you just grab the latest sIBL set of the month, and give these new versions a shot! Yes, I'm keeping up the promise - this set has been there since september 1st.

Actually, there is even more than I promised, because in August I've upped a mid-month sIBL. Just because I was so happy to get a full HDR panorama stitched from fully handheld exposure brackets! And it works just fine:



This entire site is in permanent flux right now, even if there isn't always a blog entry on it. Here is a roundup of last week's updates:

• Added QTpfsGUI and HDRView to the Software Links page.
• Got great reviews for the book from Kirt Witte and Jack Howard.
• Beefed up the zeitgeist-style "Hot on Flickr" gallery with that fancy Highslide image viewer.
• Rewired the comments on the bottom of each blog post to a different service. Leaving a comment doesn't require registration anymore, so there is no reason for you to be quiet!

My good friend Bernhard Vogl - Panographer par excellence - keeps pushing the envelope.
Anything below Gigapixel resolution he finds just boring these days. Check out his (and his friends) new pieces on HDRView.at, an entire gallery dedicated to Microsoft's latest Super-Resolution-Panoviewer. HDView is currently in beta stage, but it sure is one of the smoothest viewers out there.



On his Panorama Blog Bernhard talks about the latest HDView feature: Auto Tone Adjustment.
Clearly, this is the foundation for on-the-fly tonemapping as it should be, especially since Microsoft's .wdp format is technically a stream-able HDR format. It's just the current implementation that is restricted to LDR images... but it's getting there, eventually.

Dynamic Photo HDR is the new kid on the block, joining the ranks of HDR utilities. It comes in a sexy outfit, that offers just the right blend of usability and eye-candy interface. And it's prized very competitive at $39 bucks.

Feature-wise I dig:

• semi-manual ghostbusting with a masking brush (finally!!)
• alignment via control points, that even warps the images to fit
• good selection of 6 tonemapping operators: 2 Local + 3 Global TMOs + 1 Hybrid
• post-adjustments (curves, colors) right in the tonemapping dialog.

What bothers me (at first glance):

• doesn't run multithreaded, so I have 7 cores just lurking around...
• tonemapping preview can't be seen at actual pixel size (even though the "Full Preview" button leads to the assumption).
• no panoramic continuity option for Local TMOs.

If you want to know the full story, read Jack Howard's Review on PopPhoto (don't miss out on the tutorial slideshow), or take this baby on a test drive yourself.

HDR and tonemapping have become essential tools in photography. And I'm not talking about the trendy stylez on flickr, I'm talking real fine art photography!

My friend Uwe Steinmüller knows. He knows why, how, and how to do it like a pro. And he let's you know, too.
Uwe runs DigitalOutbackPhoto.com, where you can learn pretty much everything about fine art photography, and he also has an ever-growing tutorial section on HDR and Tonemapping online. Even better, if you want to pick his brain directly, you should sign up for his "Capture more Light" workshop. Hurry up, seats are limited!

Finally, the true power of OpenEXR is unfolding for our favorite Adobe apps! ProEXR from Fnordware is a replacement for Adobe's file format plugin, adding support for layers, full 32-bit FP, metadata, and more compression schemes.
Not only can you now work with all your precious render buffers in one file, it also allows to save Photoshop's layer stack in a single multi-layered EXR. It uses the brand new version 1.6 of the OpenEXR library, which adds the new (lossy) compression mode B44. This one is supposedly so good, that it can stream HD content directly from disk.
Way to go!

I guess it's time to set up a plugin shopping list, so essential links like this don't get lost...