Does anyone know where to buy a steel ball for light probe shots? Preferably in Europe.
idont know about steel. mine is a mirror ball. i got mine at a all purpose hardware store in the garden section as part of a garden ornament. was a cute frog holding a mirror ball. i thought it was cute…awwwww 
right up till the point when i purchased it. borrowed a hammed from behind the counter and destroyed the from right on the spot (carefully since its a mirror ball). they looked at my like i was crazy. but hey. i searched around and that was the closest i was going to come to getting what i needed.
hehehehe… nice one Da_elf
rofl great idea elf.
-dave
try out McMaster-Carr, they have just about everything imaginable and they also ship outside the US.
keep in mind if you want to buy a real steel chrome ball larger than 2" it will problably run you around 80-100 bucks.
fast too, I ordered some SS rings and got them the next day without speeding up the delievery. Internationally will of course take a bit longer.
edit: d’oh, forgot about this place… http://www.thomasregister.com
really good resource for finding different material/stuff.
http://www.garrettspecialties.com/html/dmaker.html
it’s good enough and can help you in other ways too!
great…thanx guys
you can try ebay, might be able to get one cheap there, also, someone used a christmas ornament before, this might be the cheapest way.
Dude try buying those chineese stress balls that come in a pair… They cost about £10
Then get your self another ball of some sort and spray it white or grey [cant remember which colour exactly - im sure someone will say] so that you have a matte ball as well.
Definatly need those things buddy.
A ball that is 50% grey is very important for colour corrections, though it seems most of the folks that produce hdri packs for sale don’t bother much with correcting the images they supply. This is very evident in the ones that are captured with a digital camera.
As for a white ball, im not sure when one needs that other than when trying to match white levels when integrating cg and live action/photo.
Now another question might be where does one get a paint that is absolutely 50% grey with no hint of colour, and 100% matte?
I used a X-mass ball for my hdri’s, but it’s far from ideal. First of all they are never perfectly round. Such a thing is made out of glass with the inside painted with something. So at the edges, you see the thickness of the glass which makes the outer edge of your hdri useless.
this is a good place if you´r in sweden: http://www.spekuma.se/ett.htm
otherwise a stor of ball bearings.
/Daniel