HDRI creation/Camera RAW files....did I do it right, !?

[jow]

Nice! for 30 mins work that's perfect Looks like you got a good range on the sun area as well..
Is this the same as before? i.e 7 shots?

[mdi]

time for another pic



8 images...i only stitch the horizontal rotation ones (1st 6), and then in PS i cap the gaps at the top and bottom with the last 2 images...as well as retouching my (and my dogs) shadow out.

I also do this freehand, no tripod

[jacksc02]

1 word for you both..... spheron!
Ha haa dreams are free.

PS (CS2) cant handle exposure control very well. Lightroom was designed from the ground up to support 32bit RAWs so it does a much better job at it.

[mdi]

1 word for you both..... spheron!
Ha haa dreams are free.

lol, yeah...I did look at that, god knows how much it costs, id be intrested to find out.

Although...its a big bit of kit, taking that around with you is probably going to be more effort than tripod/camera/fisheye setup...the real downside o using a standard camera is you would have to take 20 odd shots per rotation (at 60' each time) to match the range of the spheronhdr

Im not sure how the spheron handles moving objects eather..but obviosly, with a standard camera there can be quite a bit of movment in the scene when you have to take 20 shots/exposures over a few seconds, and trees/cars are moving...thats alot of ghosting

[jacksc02]

funny thing is with the spehron it is just a lens, a tripod and a laptop. Mot much at all for US$70k

[mdi]

70k!!!!! that kinda money would go a long way to paying of my mortgage!

I was thinking it might be around half that cost, but 70k...I think id rather stick with my modest peace of kit. I think the total cost of camera/lens/tripod/RC would be around £1500-£2000 tops (US$3-4K). I suppose for the film indistry maybe the extra $67k might be worth it (for speed and ease of use).....but for me...im happy with what iv got

[jacksc02]

the good thing with the speron is that it measures surrounding buildings/objects so for accurate images its great.

[jow]

1 word for you both..... spheron!
Ha haa dreams are free.

PS (CS2) cant handle exposure control very well. Lightroom was designed from the ground up to support 32bit RAWs so it does a much better job at it.

Would be nice! but 70k, ouch!!

Is CS3 any better with exposure control? I've yet to upgrade.

[suurland]

The spheron is also good for people who isn't that techniqually minded, it's real easy to use compared to stitching it all together yourself. I just did a projects where a car had to be comped into the background, it was around 30 environments each with their own hdr map, all of those was shot with a spheron cam, in fact twice as many was shot but we just picked the best ones.. If that had to be done with a normal cam+pano head+stitching it would have taken a bit more time :P

But mdi it's really nice what you have done, and faking gets you a really long way, but you might get into problems with for example a black car, there is no way that lightroom can lower the exposure of a well lit image so the sun is just a white circle so you never get the same amount of intensity.

/Thomas

[mdi]

But mdi it's really nice what you have done, and faking gets you a really long way, but you might get into problems with for example a black car, there is no way that lightroom can lower the exposure of a well lit image so the sun is just a white circle so you never get the same amount of intensity./Thomas

yep, its pretty basic...youre right..theres just not enough info in the image for every need. But, I think its better than a standard 8bit image

BTW.....how does the spheron work...does it take one pic/or many pics, is it technically just the same as a standard camera, with added software/laptop to make life easyer. I read on CGtalk thats its really really slow.
I know that some photographers are using UMPC devices to control/store images on there DSLRs (when there away from the studio)- Im pretty sure that it would be simple to have a UMPC to control and automate a bunch of exposures (-10 0 +10) direct from the camera...ie, to save you/I from having to change the shutter speed 40+ times by hand

as for stiching being a pain...if you have a pano head for a tripod, stiching is super easy, infact if you take a bunch of pano shots that are all at 30-60 degree intervals you should without any problem be able to batch process them...and know alot of pano software has HDRI support built in!...its only when you dont use a tripod/pano head that it all goes to crap (like me!)

[suurland]

BTW.....how does the spheron work...does it take one pic/or many pics, is it technically just the same as a standard camera, with added software/laptop to make life easyer. I read on CGtalk thats its really really slow.

It does it all in one rotation. and it's using a normal nikon fisheye lens. but the sensor is different it's not like a normal dslr, from memory it's 2-3cm tall but only a few mm wide which is all it needs as it just takes a lot of slices. And it does one color at a time, so when you have some moving you have artifacts that is red-green-blue colored.

As for the speed it's 5 min for 5000x2500 and 20 mins for 10000x5000.

I know that some photographers are using UMPC devices to control/store images on there DSLRs (when there away from the studio)- Im pretty sure that it would be simple to have a UMPC to control and automate a bunch of exposures (-10 0 +10) direct from the camera...ie, to save you/I from having to change the shutter speed 40+ times by hand

yeah, you need something to take the images for you, you can't change the settings yourself. Personally I just use a laptop.

as for stiching being a pain...if you have a pano head for a tripod, stiching is super easy, infact if you take a bunch of pano shots that are all at 30-60 degree intervals you should without any problem be able to batch process them...and know alot of pano software has HDRI support built in!...its only when you dont use a tripod/pano head that it all goes to crap (like me!)

Yeah, I know, i got a pano head myself and use ptgui like you

/Thomas

[mdi]

Yeah, I know, i got a pano head myself and use ptgui like you

/Thomas

oh...now im really intrested....whats youre settup

[suurland]

Canon 5D + Canon 15 mm fisheye + Nodal ninja 3

/Thomas

[mdi]

cool...one last question....do you use any software to automate the camera to take a No of exposures?

[suurland]

yeah.. http://www.breezesys.com/DSLRRemotePro/index.htm It can bracket up to 15 shots.

/Thomas