COMPOSITION
- 
Cinematographers Blueprint 300dpi poster
Read more: Cinematographers Blueprint 300dpi posterThe 300dpi digital poster is now available to all PixelSham.com subscribers.
If you have already subscribed and wish a copy, please send me a note through the contact page.
 - 
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
 
DESIGN
COLOR
LIGHTING
- 
Tracing Spherical harmonics and how Weta used them in production
Read more: Tracing Spherical harmonics and how Weta used them in productionA way to approximate complex lighting in ultra realistic renders.
All SH lighting techniques involve replacing parts of standard lighting equations with spherical functions that have been projected into frequency space using the spherical harmonics as a basis.
http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~cs4162/slides/spherical-harmonic-lighting.pdf
Spherical harmonics as used at Weta Digital
 - 
Composition – 5 tips for creating perfect cinematic lighting and making your work look stunning
Read 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
 - 
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. - 
Beeble Switchlight’s Plugin for Foundry Nuke
Read more: Beeble Switchlight’s Plugin for Foundry Nukehttps://www.cutout.pro/learn/beeble-switchlight/
https://www.switchlight-api.beeble.ai/pricing
https://www.switchlight-api.beeble.ai
https://github.com/beeble-ai/SwitchLight-Studio
https://beeble.ai/terms-of-use
https://www.switchlight-api.beeble.ai/docs
 
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
- 
Photography basics: Color Temperature and White Balance
 - 
What’s the Difference Between Ray Casting, Ray Tracing, Path Tracing and Rasterization? Physical light tracing…
 - 
FFmpeg – examples and convenience lines
 - 
MiniTunes V1 – Free MP3 library app
 - 
Daniele Tosti Interview for the magazine InCG, Taiwan, Issue 28, 201609
 - 
Want to build a start up company that lasts? Think three-layer cake
 - 
Decart AI Mirage – The first ever World Transformation Model – turning any video, game, or camera feed into a new digital world, in real time
 - 
Film Production walk-through – pipeline – I want to make a … movie
 
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.








![sRGB gamma correction test [gamma correction test]](http://www.madore.org/~david/misc/color/gammatest.png)


