What's new in HDR Imaging?
Releases, tech demos, rumours, papers.
New Bachelor Thesis: Shooting HDRI for CGI
April 13, 2009Pashá Kuliyev just made his Bachelor in Imaging Sciences and Media Technology at the University of Applied Sciences Cologne. Congratulations, Pashá!
Highlights of his Bachelor thesis are:
There's a good ratio of well written explanations and formula-proven hard facts in there. HDR Software developers should have a closer look at chapter 2.3, where the Lat-Long mapping equations are discussed. This is the foundation to make your tonemappers panorama-safe. Heck, you should read the whole thing - you'll find thousands of golden information nuggets in this thesis.
Because Pashá is awesome, he offers his full thesis for free download, right here in the Tutorials/Download section.
I'm sure there is a bright future waiting for Pashá. Currently, he's running a CGI workshop at his University. Wonder which big CG house will snatch him for their R&D department...
Highlights of his Bachelor thesis are:
- Comparing mirror balls of different grades and sizes.
- Fisheye capturing with a custom made panoramic head.
- Hands-on experience with the SpheronHDR camera.
- Comparing all three acquisition techniques.
- Great explanation of radiometric units.
- Overview of the multi-layer rendering and compositing.
There's a good ratio of well written explanations and formula-proven hard facts in there. HDR Software developers should have a closer look at chapter 2.3, where the Lat-Long mapping equations are discussed. This is the foundation to make your tonemappers panorama-safe. Heck, you should read the whole thing - you'll find thousands of golden information nuggets in this thesis.
Because Pashá is awesome, he offers his full thesis for free download, right here in the Tutorials/Download section.
I'm sure there is a bright future waiting for Pashá. Currently, he's running a CGI workshop at his University. Wonder which big CG house will snatch him for their R&D department...
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Paul Debevec nominated for ELAN Award
April 2, 2009Paul Debevec is one of the founding fathers of HDR Imaging. He also took HDRI further than anyone else, a true pioneer, still unmatched. If you're not familiar with his work yet, check out this documentary:
And now Paul Debevec is up for the Visionary Award of the Visual Effects Industry. Clearly, nobody deserves it more than him! You should pop into the ELAN website and vote for Paul. Do it now, voting closes this Friday...
Quick sidenote: my monthly update chores. This month's sIBL is my friend Alex's Apartment. Also, we can celebrate 1.000.000 "HDR"-images on Flickr with a new race for front seats in the Hot-on-Flickr gallery.
And now: Go, Paul, go Paul, GO!
And now Paul Debevec is up for the Visionary Award of the Visual Effects Industry. Clearly, nobody deserves it more than him! You should pop into the ELAN website and vote for Paul. Do it now, voting closes this Friday...
Monthly site updates:
Quick sidenote: my monthly update chores. This month's sIBL is my friend Alex's Apartment. Also, we can celebrate 1.000.000 "HDR"-images on Flickr with a new race for front seats in the Hot-on-Flickr gallery.
And now: Go, Paul, go Paul, GO!
Software rebates for my readers, Round 2
March 29, 2009Last December I nailed some top deals for my readers.
And now, after some more negotiations, I proudly present the extended deal.
Autopano Pro and Ariea HDR Max joined in, as well as the fabulous Photoshop-Plugins ProEXR and Filter Forge. Many thanks to all the participating software vendors.
All together there are now 11 coupons on the Software page, that you can unlock with the right password from the HDRI Handbook. If you would use all the coupons, the savings alone add up to more than $260.00! Considering that the HDRI-Handbook is just $33.00 on Amazon
, this is a sweet roll-your-own-bundle deal.Here are all the details:
Regular | Discounted | You Save | |
NEW: Autopano Pro | $131.00 | $119.00 | $12.00 |
NEW: Ariea HDR Max | $129.99 | $109.99 | $20.00 |
NEW: Pro EXR | $95.00 | $76.00 | $19.00 |
NEW: Filter Forge | $299.00 | $239.20 | $59.80 |
Dynamic Photo HDR | $55.00 | $38.50 | $16.50 |
Essential HDR | $69.99 | $48.99 | $22.00 |
exrTrader | $60.00 | $51.00 | $9.00 |
FDRTools Advanced | $76.00 | $64.60 | $11.40 |
Hydra | $59.99 | $41.97 | $17.99 |
infiniMap exr | $306.00 | $260.10 | $45.90 |
Photomatix Pro | $99.00 | $69.30 | $29.70 |
Go get 'em, Tiger!
[Disclaimer: Some prices might be off due to currency conversion. All rebates only valid for new software purchases, there is no refund given for software you already own.]
Site Update: New Gigapano Gallery
March 24, 2009
Ladies and Gentlemen, I started a new panogallery.
This time around it's about size. Previous experiments with HDView (1, 2, 3, 4) were interesting, but only work on PC. Speaking about web standards (see last post). Well, since most of my really big panoramas aren't even HDR, a fixed exposure will do as well. Tonemapping a 500 megapixel image isn't much fun, but worth the effort anyway. So for the sake of compatibility and smooth display I decided for the latest krpano Flash viewer.
Take your time exploring the Gigapano Gallery!
Have fun.
New take on showing HDR images on the web
March 20, 2009Rafał Mantiuk and Wolfgang Heidrich, two recognized authorities in HDR research, have just released HDR HTML. It's is a web-viewer for HDR images. Not these tonemapped JPEGs you find on Flickr, but real HDRIs with adjustable exposure.
There have been other ways for achieving this before, namely PTViewer (tutorial here), HDView, XDepth and ADR. What they all have in common, is that they require Flash or proprietary ActiveX components to be installed in the user's browser. HDR HTML is the first fully compliant HTML solution, making it super-compatible with web standards.
The generator is even based on page templates, opening up a world of opportunities. You bet that I will use it to put together something cool for this site ;)
