COMPOSITION
- 
Mastering Camera Shots and Angles: A Guide for FilmmakersRead more: Mastering Camera Shots and Angles: A Guide for Filmmakershttps://website.ltx.studio/blog/mastering-camera-shots-and-angles 1. Extreme Wide Shot  2. Wide Shot  3. Medium Shot  4. Close Up  5. Extreme Close Up  
- 
Cinematographers Blueprint 300dpi posterRead 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. 
- 
Christopher Butler – Understanding the Eye-Mind Connection – Vision is a mental processRead more: Christopher Butler – Understanding the Eye-Mind Connection – Vision is a mental processhttps://www.chrbutler.com/understanding-the-eye-mind-connection The intricate relationship between the eyes and the brain, often termed the eye-mind connection, reveals that vision is predominantly a cognitive process. This understanding has profound implications for fields such as design, where capturing and maintaining attention is paramount. This essay delves into the nuances of visual perception, the brain’s role in interpreting visual data, and how this knowledge can be applied to effective design strategies. This cognitive aspect of vision is evident in phenomena such as optical illusions, where the brain interprets visual information in a way that contradicts physical reality. These illusions underscore that what we “see” is not merely a direct recording of the external world but a constructed experience shaped by cognitive processes. Understanding the cognitive nature of vision is crucial for effective design. Designers must consider how the brain processes visual information to create compelling and engaging visuals. This involves several key principles: - Attention and Engagement
- Visual Hierarchy
- Cognitive Load Management
- Context and Meaning
  
DESIGN
COLOR
- 
If a blind person gained sight, could they recognize objects previously touched?Read more: If a blind person gained sight, could they recognize objects previously touched?Blind people who regain their sight may find themselves in a world they don’t immediately comprehend. “It would be more like a sighted person trying to rely on tactile information,” Moore says. Learning to see is a developmental process, just like learning language, Prof Cathleen Moore continues. “As far as vision goes, a three-and-a-half year old child is already a well-calibrated system.” 
- 
About green screensRead more: About green screenshackaday.com/2015/02/07/how-green-screen-worked-before-computers/ www.newtek.com/blog/tips/best-green-screen-materials/ www.chromawall.com/blog//chroma-key-green Chroma Key Green, the color of green screens is also known as Chroma Green and is valued at approximately 354C in the Pantone color matching system (PMS). Chroma Green can be broken down in many different ways. Here is green screen green as other values useful for both physical and digital production: Green Screen as RGB Color Value: 0, 177, 64 
 Green Screen as CMYK Color Value: 81, 0, 92, 0
 Green Screen as Hex Color Value: #00b140
 Green Screen as Websafe Color Value: #009933Chroma Key Green is reasonably close to an 18% gray reflectance. Illuminate your green screen with an uniform source with less than 2/3 EV variation. 
 The level of brightness at any given f-stop should be equivalent to a 90% white card under the same lighting.
- 
What is OLED and what can it do for your TVRead more: What is OLED and what can it do for your TVhttps://www.cnet.com/news/what-is-oled-and-what-can-it-do-for-your-tv/ OLED stands for Organic Light Emitting Diode. Each pixel in an OLED display is made of a material that glows when you jab it with electricity. Kind of like the heating elements in a toaster, but with less heat and better resolution. This effect is called electroluminescence, which is one of those delightful words that is big, but actually makes sense: “electro” for electricity, “lumin” for light and “escence” for, well, basically “essence.” OLED TV marketing often claims “infinite” contrast ratios, and while that might sound like typical hyperbole, it’s one of the extremely rare instances where such claims are actually true. Since OLED can produce a perfect black, emitting no light whatsoever, its contrast ratio (expressed as the brightest white divided by the darkest black) is technically infinite. OLED is the only technology capable of absolute blacks and extremely bright whites on a per-pixel basis. LCD definitely can’t do that, and even the vaunted, beloved, dearly departed plasma couldn’t do absolute blacks. 
- 
Colormaxxing – What if I told you that rgb(255, 0, 0) is not actually the reddest red you can have in your browser?Read more: Colormaxxing – What if I told you that rgb(255, 0, 0) is not actually the reddest red you can have in your browser?https://karuna.dev/colormaxxing https://webkit.org/blog-files/color-gamut/comparison.html https://oklch.com/#70,0.1,197,100  
- 
Christopher Butler – Understanding the Eye-Mind Connection – Vision is a mental processRead more: Christopher Butler – Understanding the Eye-Mind Connection – Vision is a mental processhttps://www.chrbutler.com/understanding-the-eye-mind-connection The intricate relationship between the eyes and the brain, often termed the eye-mind connection, reveals that vision is predominantly a cognitive process. This understanding has profound implications for fields such as design, where capturing and maintaining attention is paramount. This essay delves into the nuances of visual perception, the brain’s role in interpreting visual data, and how this knowledge can be applied to effective design strategies. This cognitive aspect of vision is evident in phenomena such as optical illusions, where the brain interprets visual information in a way that contradicts physical reality. These illusions underscore that what we “see” is not merely a direct recording of the external world but a constructed experience shaped by cognitive processes. Understanding the cognitive nature of vision is crucial for effective design. Designers must consider how the brain processes visual information to create compelling and engaging visuals. This involves several key principles: - Attention and Engagement
- Visual Hierarchy
- Cognitive Load Management
- Context and Meaning
  
- 
sRGB vs REC709 – An introduction and FFmpeg implementationsRead more: sRGB vs REC709 – An introduction and FFmpeg implementations 1. Basic Comparison- What they are
- sRGB: A standard “web”/computer-display RGB color space defined by IEC 61966-2-1. It’s used for most monitors, cameras, printers, and the vast majority of images on the Internet.
- Rec. 709: An HD-video color space defined by ITU-R BT.709. It’s the go-to standard for HDTV broadcasts, Blu-ray discs, and professional video pipelines.
 
- Why they exist
- sRGB: Ensures consistent colors across different consumer devices (PCs, phones, webcams).
- Rec. 709: Ensures consistent colors across video production and playback chains (cameras → editing → broadcast → TV).
 
- What you’ll see
- On your desktop or phone, images tagged sRGB will look “right” without extra tweaking.
- On an HDTV or video-editing timeline, footage tagged Rec. 709 will display accurate contrast and hue on broadcast-grade monitors.
 
 
 2. Digging DeeperFeature sRGB Rec. 709 White point D65 (6504 K), same for both D65 (6504 K) Primaries (x,y) R: (0.640, 0.330) G: (0.300, 0.600) B: (0.150, 0.060) R: (0.640, 0.330) G: (0.300, 0.600) B: (0.150, 0.060) Gamut size Identical triangle on CIE 1931 chart Identical to sRGB Gamma / transfer Piecewise curve: approximate 2.2 with linear toe Pure power-law γ≈2.4 (often approximated as 2.2 in practice) Matrix coefficients N/A (pure RGB usage) Y = 0.2126 R + 0.7152 G + 0.0722 B (Rec. 709 matrix) Typical bit-depth 8-bit/channel (with 16-bit variants) 8-bit/channel (10-bit for professional video) Usage metadata Tagged as “sRGB” in image files (PNG, JPEG, etc.) Tagged as “bt709” in video containers (MP4, MOV) Color range Full-range RGB (0–255) Studio-range Y′CbCr (Y′ [16–235], Cb/Cr [16–240]) 
 Why the Small Differences Matter(more…)
- What they are
- 
Scientists claim to have discovered ‘new colour’ no one has seen before: OloRead more: Scientists claim to have discovered ‘new colour’ no one has seen before: Olohttps://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyq0n3em41o By stimulating specific cells in the retina, the participants claim to have witnessed a blue-green colour that scientists have called “olo”, but some experts have said the existence of a new colour is “open to argument”. The findings, published in the journal Science Advances on Friday, have been described by the study’s co-author, Prof Ren Ng from the University of California, as “remarkable”.  (A) System inputs. (i) Retina map of 103 cone cells preclassified by spectral type (7). (ii) Target visual percept (here, a video of a child, see movie S1 at 1:04). (iii) Infrared cellular-scale imaging of the retina with 60-frames-per-second rolling shutter. Fixational eye movement is visible over the three frames shown. (B) System outputs. (iv) Real-time per-cone target activation levels to reproduce the target percept, computed by: extracting eye motion from the input video relative to the retina map; identifying the spectral type of every cone in the field of view; computing the per-cone activation the target percept would have produced. (v) Intensities of visible-wavelength 488-nm laser microdoses at each cone required to achieve its target activation level. (C) Infrared imaging and visible-wavelength stimulation are physically accomplished in a raster scan across the retinal region using AOSLO. By modulating the visible-wavelength beam’s intensity, the laser microdoses shown in (v) are delivered. Drawing adapted with permission [Harmening and Sincich (54)]. (D) Examples of target percepts with corresponding cone activations and laser microdoses, ranging from colored squares to complex imagery. Teal-striped regions represent the color “olo” of stimulating only M cones. 
LIGHTING
- 
Composition – cinematography Cheat SheetRead more: Composition – cinematography Cheat Sheet Where is our eye attracted first? Why? Size. Focus. Lighting. Color. Size. Mr. White (Harvey Keitel) on the right. 
 Focus. He’s one of the two objects in focus.
 Lighting. Mr. White is large and in focus and Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi) is highlighted by
 a shaft of light.
 Color. Both are black and white but the read on Mr. White’s shirt now really stands out.
 (more…)
 What type of lighting?
- 
Magnific.ai Relight – change the entire lighting of a sceneRead more: Magnific.ai Relight – change the entire lighting of a sceneIt’s a new Magnific spell that allows you to change the entire lighting of a scene and, optionally, the background with just: 1/ A prompt OR 
 2/ A reference image OR
 3/ A light map (drawing your own lights)https://x.com/javilopen/status/1805274155065176489 
- 
7 Easy Portrait Lighting SetupsRead more: 7 Easy Portrait Lighting SetupsButterfly Loop Rembrandt Split Rim Broad Short 
- 
What light is best to illuminate gems for resaleRead more: What light is best to illuminate gems for resalewww.palagems.com/gem-lighting2 Artificial light sources, not unlike the diverse phases of natural light, vary considerably in their properties. As a result, some lamps render an object’s color better than others do. The most important criterion for assessing the color-rendering ability of any lamp is its spectral power distribution curve. Natural daylight varies too much in strength and spectral composition to be taken seriously as a lighting standard for grading and dealing colored stones. For anything to be a standard, it must be constant in its properties, which natural light is not. For dealers in particular to make the transition from natural light to an artificial light source, that source must offer: 
 1- A degree of illuminance at least as strong as the common phases of natural daylight.
 2- Spectral properties identical or comparable to a phase of natural daylight.A source combining these two things makes gems appear much the same as when viewed under a given phase of natural light. From the viewpoint of many dealers, this corresponds to a naturalappearance. The 6000° Kelvin xenon short-arc lamp appears closest to meeting the criteria for a standard light source. Besides the strong illuminance this lamp affords, its spectrum is very similar to CIE standard illuminants of similar color temperature.   
- 
Free HDRI librariesRead more: Free HDRI librariesnoahwitchell.com 
 http://www.noahwitchell.com/freebieslocationtextures.com 
 https://locationtextures.com/panoramas/maxroz.com 
 https://www.maxroz.com/hdri/listHDRI Haven 
 https://hdrihaven.com/Poly Haven 
 https://polyhaven.com/hdrisDomeble 
 https://www.domeble.com/IHDRI 
 https://www.ihdri.com/HDRMaps 
 https://hdrmaps.com/NoEmotionHdrs.net 
 http://noemotionhdrs.net/hdrday.htmlOpenFootage.net 
 https://www.openfootage.net/hdri-panorama/HDRI-hub 
 https://www.hdri-hub.com/hdrishop/hdri.zwischendrin 
 https://www.zwischendrin.com/en/browse/hdriLonger list here: https://cgtricks.com/list-sites-free-hdri/ 
- 
StudioBinder.com – CRI color rendering indexRead more: StudioBinder.com – CRI color rendering indexwww.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-color-rendering-index “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. ” www.pixelsham.com/2021/04/28/types-of-film-lights-and-their-efficiency 
- 
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…)
- 
Bella – Fast Spectral RenderingRead more: Bella – Fast Spectral RenderingBella works in spectral space, allowing effects such as BSDF wavelength dependency, diffraction, or atmosphere to be modeled far more accurately than in color space. https://superrendersfarm.com/blog/uncategorized/bella-a-new-spectral-physically-based-renderer/ 
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
- 
Zibra.AI – Real-Time Volumetric Effects in Virtual Production. Now free for Indies!
- 
Photography basics: Solid Angle measures
- 
Photography basics: How Exposure Stops (Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO) Affect Your Photos – cheat sheet cards
- 
Survivorship Bias: The error resulting from systematically focusing on successes and ignoring failures. How a young statistician saved his planes during WW2.
- 
Jesse Zumstein – Jobs in games
- 
Godot Cheat Sheets
- 
Want to build a start up company that lasts? Think three-layer cake
- 
VFX pipeline – Render Wall Farm management topics
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.




























 
 






