Let's talk about creating HDRIs...
nannerfkm
Posts: 66
Specifically, I'm wondering if there is anyone in our community that has used Ptgui (or similar software). If so, what do you think of the software and the result?
Post edited by nannerfkm on
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I have been using PTGUI since 2006. I have always found it to be fast, flexible and reliable. It'll do 360 degree panos, HDR, tonemapping, cropping & masking of source images, automatic alignment, manual creation/tweaking of control points, large number of input images, large output, etc.
Here's a small.resized example of an image I created while hiking the Presidentials in the White Mountains of NH like 15 years ago:
Even though it was taken with a modest/old Nikon D80 with a cheap kit zoom lens, the final, high-res version of the image I created is 16,000px wide and it looks incredible printed 3 feet wide. Here's a small 800x800 crop from that image:
- Greg
ETA: After digging through some old files, if looks like this pano was created by shooting 6 exposures 2ev apart at 6 different camera rotations for a total of 36 exposures. The HDR processing was done in Photomatix and not PTGUI (although you can do it in PTGUI).
I think you should change the title of the thread from "let's talk about HDRIs" to "let's talk about PTGUI".
Wow. Nice. I've been using HDRIs for a while with my renders and was interested in making my own just for grins. I don't expect high quality for I am more of a dabbler than perfectionist, but the thought has intrigued me for a while. However, being a dabbler, I'm not sure I'd keep my focus trying to stitch a load of files together. Is PTGUI easy to use? Also, are there any other viable alternatives? Finally, I've been wondering if I could use google earth to make low end HDRIs. The latter seems to be a bit of a reach, but I can't travel far these days...
I made around 300 HDRIs, Angular Map projection and Spherical projection. True photography based with a Nikon DX50 (DSLR) and later D600 (SLR) with fisheye lenses 8 - 16 mm and rectlinear lenses 35 - 50 mm; daylight, night skies and indoors. I also created true HDRIs from renders by rendering with different light settings, and of course, I also made artificial HDRIs by cheating.
To change the projection, assemble the differently exposed images to an HDRI and stitch them to a panorama, I use(d): HDRShop (not available anymore), Picturenaut, Pano2VR and PTGui.
If you are interested in creating HDRI panoramas, I have some information about the topic on my website (horo.ch). Though most of PDFs are Bryce based, most of it is valid also for other programs like Daz Studio, Carrara, Vue, etc.
Bryce & 3D CG Documents > Mine (PDF) > IBL-HDRI
There are also a few free HDRIs.
Raytracing > IBL and HDRI > Resources > HR-HDRI (S)
Sounds like PTGUI may be overkill in your case. A good way to dip your toes into HDRI creation might be to render your own HDRIs from scenes you setup in DS? There's 3 basic things you need to do:
1. Render with an aspect ratio of 2 to 1
2. Change the camera lens to spherical
3. Render out a 32-bit Beauty Canvas
I'm on my phone and not home at the moment, so I can't go more detail right now, but that's the general idea.
HTH.
- Greg
Thanks!
I render my HDRIs this way, but my workflow demands one more step. I have to find every light source, every emissive surface, and the environment, and reduce all their luminances by about 1/10,000 to keep the bright values from overflowing. A tip from the forums pointed me to Iray Light Manager PRO, which saves me much time adjusting complex scenes. Hope this helps.
Hallelujah!
Disciple
Thanks for sharing the link. My main software is Blender, but HDRIs are great as background landscape and Bryce as well as Vue good programs to create such HDRIs.
Valuable information to get an efficient workflow.
You are welcome Singular3D.