COMPOSITION
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Composition – 5 tips for creating perfect cinematic lighting and making your work look stunningRead more: Composition – 5 tips for creating perfect cinematic lighting and making your work look stunninghttp://www.diyphotography.net/5-tips-creating-perfect-cinematic-lighting-making-work-look-stunning/ 1. Learn the rules of lighting 2. Learn when to break the rules 3. Make your key light larger 4. Reverse keying 5. Always be backlighting 
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StudioBinder – Roger Deakins on How to Choose a Camera Lens — Cinematography Composition TechniquesRead more: StudioBinder – Roger Deakins on How to Choose a Camera Lens — Cinematography Composition Techniqueshttps://www.studiobinder.com/blog/camera-lens-buying-guide/ https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/e-books/camera-lenses-explained-volume-1-ebook 
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Photography basics: Depth of Field and compositionRead more: Photography basics: Depth of Field and compositionDepth of field is the range within which focusing is resolved in a photo. 
 Aperture has a huge affect on to the depth of field.Changing the f-stops (f/#) of a lens will change aperture and as such the DOF. f-stops are a just certain number which is telling you the size of the aperture. That’s how f-stop is related to aperture (and DOF). If you increase f-stops, it will increase DOF, the area in focus (and decrease the aperture). On the other hand, decreasing the f-stop it will decrease DOF (and increase the aperture). The red cone in the figure is an angular representation of the resolution of the system. Versus the dotted lines, which indicate the aperture coverage. Where the lines of the two cones intersect defines the total range of the depth of field. This image explains why the longer the depth of field, the greater the range of clarity. 
DESIGN
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Ranko Prozo – Modelling design tipsRead more: Ranko Prozo – Modelling design tipsEvery Project I work on I always create a stylization Cheat sheet. Every project is unique but some principles carry over no matter what. This is a sheet I use a lot when I work on isometric stylized projects to help keep my assets consistent and interesting. None of these concepts are my own, just lots of tips I learned over the years. I have also added this to a page on my website, will continue to update with more tips and tricks, just need time to compile it all :)  
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Pasquale Scionti – Production Walkthrough with Virtual Camera and iPad pro 11.5 on Unreal Engine 4.25Read more: Pasquale Scionti – Production Walkthrough with Virtual Camera and iPad pro 11.5 on Unreal Engine 4.2580.lv/articles/creating-an-old-abandoned-mansion-with-quixel-tools/ www.artstation.com/artwork/Poexyo  
COLOR
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Stefan Ringelschwandtner – LUT Inspector toolRead more: Stefan Ringelschwandtner – LUT Inspector toolIt lets you load any .cube LUT right in your browser, see the RGB curves, and use a split view on the Granger Test Image to compare the original vs. LUT-applied version in real time — perfect for spotting hue shifts, saturation changes, and contrast tweaks. https://mononodes.com/lut-inspector/  
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Willem Zwarthoed – Aces gamut in VFX production pdfRead more: Willem Zwarthoed – Aces gamut in VFX production pdfhttps://www.provideocoalition.com/color-management-part-12-introducing-aces/ Local copy: 
 https://www.slideshare.net/hpduiker/acescg-a-common-color-encoding-for-visual-effects-applications 
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Victor Perez – ACES Color Management in DaVinci ResolveRead more: Victor Perez – ACES Color Management in DaVinci Resolvehttpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i–TS88-6xA 
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Mysterious animation wins best illusion of 2011 – Motion silencing illusionRead more: Mysterious animation wins best illusion of 2011 – Motion silencing illusionThe 2011 Best Illusion of the Year uses motion to render color changes invisible, and so reveals a quirk in our visual systems that is new to scientists. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_silencing_illusion “It is a really beautiful effect, revealing something about how our visual system works that we didn’t know before,” said Daniel Simons, a professor at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. Simons studies visual cognition, and did not work on this illusion. Before its creation, scientists didn’t know that motion had this effect on perception, Simons said. A viewer stares at a speck at the center of a ring of colored dots, which continuously change color. When the ring begins to rotate around the speck, the color changes appear to stop. But this is an illusion. For some reason, the motion causes our visual system to ignore the color changes. (You can, however, see the color changes if you follow the rotating circles with your eyes.) 
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Virtual Production volumes studyRead more: Virtual Production volumes studyColor Fidelity in LED Volumes 
 https://theasc.com/articles/color-fidelity-in-led-volumesVirtual Production Glossary 
 https://vpglossary.com/What is Virtual Production – In depth analysis 
 https://www.leadingledtech.com/what-is-a-led-virtual-production-studio-in-depth-technical-analysis/A comparison of LED panels for use in Virtual Production: 
 Findings and recommendations
 https://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/36826/1/LED_Comparison_White_Paper%281%29.pdf
LIGHTING
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Gamma correctionRead more: Gamma correction http://www.normankoren.com/makingfineprints1A.html#Gammabox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_correction http://www.photoscientia.co.uk/Gamma.htm https://www.w3.org/Graphics/Color/sRGB.html http://www.eizoglobal.com/library/basics/lcd_display_gamma/index.html https://forum.reallusion.com/PrintTopic308094.aspx Basically, gamma is the relationship between the brightness of a pixel as it appears on the screen, and the numerical value of that pixel. Generally Gamma is just about defining relationships. Three main types: 
 – Image Gamma encoded in images
 – Display Gammas encoded in hardware and/or viewing time
 – System or Viewing Gamma which is the net effect of all gammas when you look back at a final image. In theory this should flatten back to 1.0 gamma.
 (more…)
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Sun cone angle (angular diameter) as perceived by earth viewersRead more: Sun cone angle (angular diameter) as perceived by earth viewersAlso see: https://www.pixelsham.com/2020/08/01/solid-angle-measures/ The cone angle of the sun refers to the angular diameter of the sun as observed from Earth, which is related to the apparent size of the sun in the sky. The angular diameter of the sun, or the cone angle of the sunlight as perceived from Earth, is approximately 0.53 degrees on average. This value can vary slightly due to the elliptical nature of Earth’s orbit around the sun, but it generally stays within a narrow range. Here’s a more precise breakdown: - 
- Average Angular Diameter: About 0.53 degrees (31 arcminutes)
- Minimum Angular Diameter: Approximately 0.52 degrees (when Earth is at aphelion, the farthest point from the sun)
- Maximum Angular Diameter: Approximately 0.54 degrees (when Earth is at perihelion, the closest point to the sun)
 
 This angular diameter remains relatively constant throughout the day because the sun’s distance from Earth does not change significantly over a single day. To summarize, the cone angle of the sun’s light, or its angular diameter, is typically around 0.53 degrees, regardless of the time of day. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angular_diameter 
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Convert between light exposure and intensityRead more: Convert between light exposure and intensityimport math,sys def Exposure2Intensity(exposure): exp = float(exposure) result = math.pow(2,exp) print(result) Exposure2Intensity(0) def Intensity2Exposure(intensity): inarg = float(intensity) if inarg == 0: print("Exposure of zero intensity is undefined.") return if inarg < 1e-323: inarg = max(inarg, 1e-323) print("Exposure of negative intensities is undefined. Clamping to a very small value instead (1e-323)") result = math.log(inarg, 2) print(result) Intensity2Exposure(0.1)Why Exposure?Exposure is a stop value that multiplies the intensity by 2 to the power of the stop. Increasing exposure by 1 results in double the amount of light. 
 Artists think in “stops.” Doubling or halving brightness is easy math and common in grading and look-dev.
 Exposure counts doublings in whole stops:- +1 stop = ×2 brightness
- −1 stop = ×0.5 brightness
 This gives perceptually even controls across both bright and dark values. 
 Why Intensity?Intensity is linear. 
 It’s what render engines and compositors expect when:- Summing values
- Averaging pixels
- Multiplying or filtering pixel data
 Use intensity when you need the actual math on pixel/light data. 
 Formulas (from your Python)- Intensity from exposure: intensity = 2**exposure
- Exposure from intensity: exposure = log₂(intensity)
 Guardrails: - Intensity must be > 0 to compute exposure.
- If intensity = 0 → exposure is undefined.
- Clamp tiny values (e.g. 1e−323) before using log₂.
 
 Use Exposure (stops) when…- You want artist-friendly sliders (−5…+5 stops)
- Adjusting look-dev or grading in even stops
- Matching plates with quick ±1 stop tweaks
- Tweening brightness changes smoothly across ranges
 
 Use Intensity (linear) when…- Storing raw pixel/light values
- Multiplying textures or lights by a gain
- Performing sums, averages, and filters
- Feeding values to render engines expecting linear data
 
 Examples- +2 stops → 2**2 = 4.0 (×4)
- +1 stop → 2**1 = 2.0 (×2)
- 0 stop → 2**0 = 1.0 (×1)
- −1 stop → 2**(−1) = 0.5 (×0.5)
- −2 stops → 2**(−2) = 0.25 (×0.25)
- Intensity 0.1 → exposure = log₂(0.1) ≈ −3.32
 
 Rule of thumbThink in stops (exposure) for controls and matching. 
 Compute in linear (intensity) for rendering and math.
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