Cheer it up for Gwynne Reddick, the code warrior who wrote the latest and greatest sIBL-Loader for modo. Hurray for Gwynne!

Now modo users can enjoy the convenience of automatic HDRI-lighting setups, just by picking a preset from the familiar preset browser. At least on Windows, modo on the Mac threw up some unforeseeable problems that will still need to be resolved.

Why don't you give it a test run with the new sIBL of the month? This time it's one of my favorites, the theatre room of the one and only Man's Chinese Theatre. And if you're still craving for more sIBL-sets, I do have a special surprise announcement at SIGGRAPH up my sleeves...

Speaking of which - don't forget to sign up for the HDRI for Artists class my friend Kirt Witte has organized. Master Zap from mental images will tell you everything about HDRI in mental ray, Gary M. Davis will demo the advantages of floating-point compositing in Toxik, and Hilmar Koch will show whatever crazy cool stuff ILM has done with HDRI for Transformers. Big names, yeah. And I will speak there, too.

So mark this date: Monday, 11 August / 8.30 - 12.15 / Room 502A !

You can't miss it - it's the very first class on opening day. Essentially, we'll proudly open the Conference. See you at Siggraph.

Blochi

One year after the initial beta release (talked about it here), Microsoft Labs have turbocharged their new online panorama viewer. HDView can now show HDR images of massive size, re-exposed and tonemapped in realtime while you pan around with unsurpassed smoothness. The viewer is based on Microsoft's HDPhoto image format and comes with a Photoshop Export plugin that even generates the website for you.
Couldn't be more convenient.

Of course I had to test it right away. Let me present you the first

100 Megapixel HDRI on the Internet

Oh yeah, baby! Check it out!
In the upper right corner of the screen you will find a button to change the tonemapping style:

no adjustment, straight middle exposure, as if it would be 8 bit.

linear tone adjustment, equals auto-exposure in a digital camera.

non-linear tonemapping (I strongly suspect a logarithmic TMO like Photoshop's Highlight Compression).

More goodness in this new version:

• fisheye mode (some like it bendy)
• fully color managed (respects profiles of images and monitor)
• supports placement of KML-overlays (identical to the way photos are put on Google Earth like sticky notes)
• XBox and 3DConnexion controllers

See, the color management alone is a giant leap in digital imaging. You can actually pipe a photo with Adobe ProPhoto profile through HDView, and it will look right on every monitor that has a known profile. And I love the fact that the developers specifically mention support for new generations of wide-gamut, high-dynamic-range displays. When it has a profile, HDView will tonemap accordingly. Never thought I'd ever say this, but: Bravo, Microsoft! You Rock!


Read more about it on the HDView Blog. Also check out the brand new HDView HDR Gallery of my friend, co-author, and personal panorama coach Bernhard Vogl.

The program formerly known as "Project Wukong" has been released today as Essential HDR.

I've no idea why they would drop a kick-ass code name like Wukong, maybe the guys from Imaging Luminary aren't real Ninjas after all... But they are certainly nice people: You can download the demo version for free (called community version), which is essentially a demo with a bottom frame watermark and 1 megapixel size restriction. Even better, the first 1000 copies are on sale for 30% off ($48.99 instead of $69.99). Usually, it's not my style to hush-hush news out here, but I figured you might want to take advantage of this launch deal...

Quick 5-minute-review

Essential HDR is an HDR generator and tonemapper. It has a global and a local tonemapping operator. The local TMO (Detail Revealer) is the big selling point. According to the developers it is a new algorithm that produces less artifacts (halos, over-saturation) and runs at a decent speed (multicore support). I can wholeheartedly agree: this is indeed a very powerful tonemapper. Without much fuzz I got a very natural images, the preview is pretty accurate, and it is super-easy to use. For control freaks there might be too few sliders, but I find it very intuitive.
The overall interface is kept simple and it blends right in with other Windows Vista applications. There is no Mac version, but it runs fine on Boot Camp or VMWare Fusion (which is what I made this screenshot on).
One thing that bugs me, is that it cannot save OpenEXR images. You're stuck with Radiance for saving your HDR image, which has less color precision. Not so cool.

Erik Reinhard can truly be called the Godfather of tonemapping. Not only did he develop some of the most successful tonemapping algorithms, he also inspired numerous software makers by writing the book that is considered the HDRI-bible: "High Dynamic Range Imaging: Acquisition, Display and Image-Based Lighting". This technically detailed book laid the groundwork for almost every HDRI software we have today. For example, Photomatix's Tone Compressor as well as Picturenaut's Photoreceptor are based on his code, Artizen and QTpfsGUI have some tonemappers named after him.

In other words, Erik Reinhard knows a great deal about tonemapping. It's his baby.

And it bothers him that the three letters HDR are often associated with a certain look. There is no such thing as an "HDR look", and if you read my Handbook you should be well aware of this fact. HDRI is a tool, not a particular look (page 168 to 170). Nevertheless, surreal and impressionist images, that happen to be made from HDR images via excessive tonemapping, are calling lots of attention on flickr. I wouldn't go as far as naming these images "wrong" (although it is definitely wrong to still call them HDR). It's a matter of taste, and people without taste make tasteless images. That simple. It's always been like that, way before the advent of HDR imaging. The dangerous part comes in, when a particular tasteless use of a tool is getting so much spotlight, that it starts to become synonymous of what you can do with this tool. Dangerous, because it makes HDR look like a toy, whereas it really is a seriously powerful tool for making better quality images.

So that was my comment on Reinhard's comment on Flickr. Feel free to comment in this.

My apologies for the delay. I've been tied up last week shooting a massive amount of HDRIs on location for an upcoming pilot. Although the images are classified, I can tell you that the Sigma 4.5 is incredible! Now it takes me under 30 seconds to shoot a full blown HDRI pano, which means the director doesn't hesitate to call me into action. Pretty sweet, thank you Sigma!

What did we miss in the meantime?

Nikon D700 coming in late July

Unless you're living under a rock, you should have already read about this amazing camera. It's Nikon's answer to Canon's D5:

• Full frame 12.1 MP FX sensor (same as D3)
• 5 fps to 8 fps (slower than D300 and D3)
• 51-point AF (same as D3)
• Sensor cleaning (unique)
• Pre-order price on Amazon: $3000

Sounds like a sweet package to me.
Read more on dpreview.com's hands-on preview or Ken Rockwell's commented preview or Nikon's official spec sheet / brochure.

Olympus develops 360° mirror lens

Actually, this is a compact lens/camera combo, most certainly for surveillance purpose. But if the price is right and this baby runs at a decent frame rate, this might be a cool gizmo for making interactive panoramic videos.
From the example pictures on the japanese Future Creations Lab site it looks like the resolution is 1600x1200 pixels, which would be just fine for the web or capturing environments for CG lighting.
At least it's good for making headlines at Wired.com.

Site update

As regular reader of this blog you certainly expect a new Flickr Gallery and sIBL of the month. Well, you got 'em.
I have also something very special for you: a video tutorial on how to create your very own sIBL-set. I'd love to make more of these screencast videos in the future, so comments and suggestions are very welcome.