COMPOSITION
- 
Composition – These are the basic lighting techniques you need to know for photography and film
Read more: Composition – These are the basic lighting techniques you need to know for photography and filmhttp://www.diyphotography.net/basic-lighting-techniques-need-know-photography-film/
Amongst the basic techniques, there’s…
1- Side lighting – Literally how it sounds, lighting a subject from the side when they’re faced toward you
2- Rembrandt lighting – Here the light is at around 45 degrees over from the front of the subject, raised and pointing down at 45 degrees
3- Back lighting – Again, how it sounds, lighting a subject from behind. This can help to add drama with silouettes
4- Rim lighting – This produces a light glowing outline around your subject
5- Key light – The main light source, and it’s not necessarily always the brightest light source
6- Fill light – This is used to fill in the shadows and provide detail that would otherwise be blackness
7- Cross lighting – Using two lights placed opposite from each other to light two subjects
 - 
Composition and The Expressive Nature Of Light
Read more: Composition and The Expressive Nature Of Lighthttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-danskin/post_12457_b_10777222.html
George Sand once said “ The artist vocation is to send light into the human heart.”
 
DESIGN
COLOR
LIGHTING
- 
Convert between light exposure and intensity
Read 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 thumb
Think in stops (exposure) for controls and matching.
Compute in linear (intensity) for rendering and math. - 
Outpost VFX lighting tips
Read more: Outpost VFX lighting tipswww.outpost-vfx.com/en/news/18-pro-tips-and-tricks-for-lighting
Get as much information regarding your plate lighting as possible
- Always use a reference
 - Replicate what is happening in real life
 - Invest into a solid HDRI
 - Start Simple
 - Observe real world lighting, photography and cinematography
 - Don’t neglect the theory
 - Learn the difference between realism and photo-realism.
 - Keep your scenes organised
 

 - 
Insta360-Research-Team DiT360 – High-Fidelity Panoramic Image Generation via Hybrid Training
Read more: Insta360-Research-Team DiT360 – High-Fidelity Panoramic Image Generation via Hybrid Traininghttps://github.com/Insta360-Research-Team/DiT360
DiT360 is a framework for high-quality panoramic image generation, leveraging both perspective and panoramic data in a hybrid training scheme. It adopts a two-level strategy—image-level cross-domain guidance and token-level hybrid supervision—to enhance perceptual realism and geometric fidelity.

 - 
Arto T. – A workflow for creating photorealistic, equirectangular 360° panoramas in ComfyUI using Flux
Read more: Arto T. – A workflow for creating photorealistic, equirectangular 360° panoramas in ComfyUI using Fluxhttps://civitai.com/models/735980/flux-equirectangular-360-panorama
https://civitai.com/models/745010?modelVersionId=833115
The trigger phrase is “equirectangular 360 degree panorama”. I would avoid saying “spherical projection” since that tends to result in non-equirectangular spherical images.
Image resolution should always be a 2:1 aspect ratio. 1024 x 512 or 1408 x 704 work quite well and were used in the training data. 2048 x 1024 also works.
I suggest using a weight of 0.5 – 1.5. If you are having issues with the image generating too flat instead of having the necessary spherical distortion, try increasing the weight above 1, though this could negatively impact small details of the image. For Flux guidance, I recommend a value of about 2.5 for realistic scenes.
8-bit output at the moment


 - 
How to Direct and Edit a Fight Scene for Rhythm and Pacing
Read more: How to Direct and Edit a Fight Scene for Rhythm and Pacingwww.premiumbeat.com/blog/directing-fight-scene-cinematography/
1- Frame the action
2- Stage the action
3- Use camera movements
4- Set a rhythm
5- Control the speed of the action
 - 
Types of Film Lights and their efficiency – CRI, Color Temperature and Luminous Efficacy
Read more: Types of Film Lights and their efficiency – CRI, Color Temperature and Luminous Efficacynofilmschool.com/types-of-film-lights
“Not every light performs the same way. Lights and lighting are tricky to handle. You have to plan for every circumstance. But the good news is, lighting can be adjusted. Let’s look at different factors that affect lighting in every scene you shoot. “
Use CRI, Luminous Efficacy and color temperature controls to match your needs.Color Temperature
Color temperature describes the “color” of white light by a light source radiated by a perfect black body at a given temperature measured in degrees Kelvinhttps://www.pixelsham.com/2019/10/18/color-temperature/
CRI
“The Color Rendering Index is a measurement of how faithfully a light source reveals the colors of whatever it illuminates, it describes the ability of a light source to reveal the color of an object, as compared to the color a natural light source would provide. The highest possible CRI is 100. A CRI of 100 generally refers to a perfect black body, like a tungsten light source or the sun. “https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-color-rendering-index
(more…) - 
HDRI shooting and editing by Xuan Prada and Greg Zaal
Read more: HDRI shooting and editing by Xuan Prada and Greg Zaalwww.xuanprada.com/blog/2014/11/3/hdri-shooting
http://blog.gregzaal.com/2016/03/16/make-your-own-hdri/
http://blog.hdrihaven.com/how-to-create-high-quality-hdri/

Shooting checklist
- Full coverage of the scene (fish-eye shots)
 - Backplates for look-development (including ground or floor)
 - Macbeth chart for white balance
 - Grey ball for lighting calibration
 - Chrome ball for lighting orientation
 - Basic scene measurements
 - Material samples
 - Individual HDR artificial lighting sources if required
 
Methodology
(more…) 
COLLECTIONS
| Featured AI
| Design And Composition 
| Explore posts  
POPULAR SEARCHES
unreal | pipeline | virtual production | free | learn | photoshop | 360 | macro | google | nvidia | resolution | open source | hdri | real-time | photography basics | nuke
FEATURED POSTS
- 
SourceTree vs Github Desktop – Which one to use
 - 
Principles of Animation with Alan Becker, Dermot OConnor and Shaun Keenan
 - 
JavaScript how-to free resources
 - 
Film Production walk-through – pipeline – I want to make a … movie
 - 
HoloCine – Holistic Generation of Cinematic Multi-Shot Long Video Narratives
 - 
Photography basics: Solid Angle measures
 - 
Yann Lecun: Meta AI, Open Source, Limits of LLMs, AGI & the Future of AI | Lex Fridman Podcast #416
 - 
Convert 2D Images or Text to 3D Models
 
Social Links
DISCLAIMER – Links and images on this website may be protected by the respective owners’ copyright. All data submitted by users through this site shall be treated as freely available to share.




