To make textures from photos

[giraffe]

Hi friends

I am trying to make my own textures with photos.
I made search and readings.
I read that it is best to make photos in overcast sky because of the homogenus lighting.
I tried this, but my photos look greyish and dull.
And mostly I have lighting from left to right etc.
I saw few photoshop tutorials for managing such images but I was not so succesful i my own images.

So I want to open a thread to share your experiences, tips in ur photography and in photoshop.

Do you make your textures in certain weather or sky?
What other things I have to take care of?
What do you advise to correct light differences in photoshop?

Thanks

[pixelstudio]

one tip would be shooting you photos incluce a black,medium grey, white card, you can then use that points in photoshop to adjust the curves.

[pixelstudio]

<sorry double post>

[Neilg]

I dont really think about it that much, we usually dont have the time to be that picky. Shadowed areas can be balanced using masks and adjustments, though. Lots and lots of adjustment layers and a mask on every one.

[JeffG2]

giraffe,

Stick with the overcast days. Boost your saturation and contrast in PS. Shadows and hotspots are much harder to deal with.

Check out http://www.crazybump.com/
(bumps and normals from photos)

and http://www.spectralogue.com/texturedesk/
(Little app to check tiling)

http://www.m3corp.com/a/products/stg.htm
(Seamless texture generator - looks like crap but is really good at correcting perspective and removing vignetting)

[giraffe]

thanks a lot for your tips and applications