COMPOSITION
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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 
DESIGN
COLOR
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Capturing textures albedoRead more: Capturing textures albedoBuilding a Portable PBR Texture Scanner by Stephane Lb 
 http://rtgfx.com/pbr-texture-scanner/How To Split Specular And Diffuse In Real Images, by John Hable 
 http://filmicworlds.com/blog/how-to-split-specular-and-diffuse-in-real-images/Capturing albedo using a Spectralon 
 https://www.activision.com/cdn/research/Real_World_Measurements_for_Call_of_Duty_Advanced_Warfare.pdfReal_World_Measurements_for_Call_of_Duty_Advanced_Warfare.pdf Spectralon is a teflon-based pressed powderthat comes closest to being a pure Lambertian diffuse material that reflects 100% of all light. If we take an HDR photograph of the Spectralon alongside the material to be measured, we can derive thediffuse albedo of that material. The process to capture diffuse reflectance is very similar to the one outlined by Hable. 1. We put a linear polarizing filter in front of the camera lens and a second linear polarizing filterin front of a modeling light or a flash such that the two filters are oriented perpendicular to eachother, i.e. cross polarized. 2. We place Spectralon close to and parallel with the material we are capturing and take brack-eted shots of the setup7. Typically, we’ll take nine photographs, from -4EV to +4EV in 1EVincrements. 3. We convert the bracketed shots to a linear HDR image. We found that many HDR packagesdo not produce an HDR image in which the pixel values are linear. PTGui is an example of apackage which does generate a linear HDR image. At this point, because of the cross polarization,the image is one of surface diffuse response. 4. We open the file in Photoshop and normalize the image by color picking the Spectralon, filling anew layer with that color and setting that layer to “Divide”. This sets the Spectralon to 1 in theimage. All other color values are relative to this so we can consider them as diffuse albedo. 
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The 7 key elements of brand identity design + 10 corporate identity examplesRead more: The 7 key elements of brand identity design + 10 corporate identity exampleswww.lucidpress.com/blog/the-7-key-elements-of-brand-identity-design 1. Clear brand purpose and positioning 2. Thorough market research 3. Likable brand personality 4. Memorable logo 5. Attractive color palette 6. Professional typography 7. On-brand supporting graphics 
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“Reality” is constructed by your brain. Here’s what that means, and why it matters.Read more: “Reality” is constructed by your brain. Here’s what that means, and why it matters.“Fix your gaze on the black dot on the left side of this image. But wait! Finish reading this paragraph first. As you gaze at the left dot, try to answer this question: In what direction is the object on the right moving? Is it drifting diagonally, or is it moving up and down?”  What color are these strawberries?  Are A and B the same gray?  
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Björn Ottosson – How software gets color wrongRead more: Björn Ottosson – How software gets color wronghttps://bottosson.github.io/posts/colorwrong/ Most software around us today are decent at accurately displaying colors. Processing of colors is another story unfortunately, and is often done badly. To understand what the problem is, let’s start with an example of three ways of blending green and magenta: - Perceptual blend – A smooth transition using a model designed to mimic human perception of color. The blending is done so that the perceived brightness and color varies smoothly and evenly.
- Linear blend – A model for blending color based on how light behaves physically. This type of blending can occur in many ways naturally, for example when colors are blended together by focus blur in a camera or when viewing a pattern of two colors at a distance.
- sRGB blend – This is how colors would normally be blended in computer software, using sRGB to represent the colors.
 Let’s look at some more examples of blending of colors, to see how these problems surface more practically. The examples use strong colors since then the differences are more pronounced. This is using the same three ways of blending colors as the first example. Instead of making it as easy as possible to work with color, most software make it unnecessarily hard, by doing image processing with representations not designed for it. Approximating the physical behavior of light with linear RGB models is one easy thing to do, but more work is needed to create image representations tailored for image processing and human perception. Also see: 
LIGHTING
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studiobinder.com – What is Tenebrism and Hard Lighting — The Art of Light and Shadow and chiaroscuro ExplainedRead more: studiobinder.com – What is Tenebrism and Hard Lighting — The Art of Light and Shadow and chiaroscuro Explainedhttps://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-tenebrism-art-definition/ https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-hard-light-photography/ 
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Photography basics: Color Temperature and White BalanceRead more: Photography basics: Color Temperature and White BalanceColor Temperature of a light source describes the spectrum of light which is radiated from a theoretical “blackbody” (an ideal physical body that absorbs all radiation and incident light – neither reflecting it nor allowing it to pass through) with a given surface temperature. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_temperature Or. Most simply it is a method of describing the color characteristics of light through a numerical value that corresponds to the color emitted by a light source, measured in degrees of Kelvin (K) on a scale from 1,000 to 10,000. More accurately. The color temperature of a light source is the temperature of an ideal backbody that radiates light of comparable hue to that of the light source. (more…)
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Outpost VFX lighting tipsRead 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
  
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domeble – Hi-Resolution CGI Backplates and 360° HDRIRead more: domeble – Hi-Resolution CGI Backplates and 360° HDRIWhen collecting hdri make sure the data supports basic metadata, such as: - Iso
- Aperture
- Exposure time or shutter time
- Color temperature
- Color space Exposure value (what the sensor receives of the sun intensity in lux)
- 7+ brackets (with 5 or 6 being the perceived balanced exposure)
 In image processing, computer graphics, and photography, high dynamic range imaging (HDRI or just HDR) is a set of techniques that allow a greater dynamic range of luminances (a Photometry measure of the luminous intensity per unit area of light travelling in a given direction. It describes the amount of light that passes through or is emitted from a particular area, and falls within a given solid angle) between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than standard digital imaging techniques or photographic methods. This wider dynamic range allows HDR images to represent more accurately the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to faint starlight and to the deepest shadows. The two main sources of HDR imagery are computer renderings and merging of multiple photographs, which in turn are known as low dynamic range (LDR) or standard dynamic range (SDR) images. Tone Mapping (Look-up) techniques, which reduce overall contrast to facilitate display of HDR images on devices with lower dynamic range, can be applied to produce images with preserved or exaggerated local contrast for artistic effect. Photography In photography, dynamic range is measured in Exposure Values (in photography, exposure value denotes all combinations of camera shutter speed and relative aperture that give the same exposure. The concept was developed in Germany in the 1950s) differences or stops, between the brightest and darkest parts of the image that show detail. An increase of one EV or one stop is a doubling of the amount of light. The human response to brightness is well approximated by a Steven’s power law, which over a reasonable range is close to logarithmic, as described by the Weber�Fechner law, which is one reason that logarithmic measures of light intensity are often used as well. HDR is short for High Dynamic Range. It’s a term used to describe an image which contains a greater exposure range than the “black” to “white” that 8 or 16-bit integer formats (JPEG, TIFF, PNG) can describe. Whereas these Low Dynamic Range images (LDR) can hold perhaps 8 to 10 f-stops of image information, HDR images can describe beyond 30 stops and stored in 32 bit images.  
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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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Tracing Spherical harmonics and how Weta used them in productionRead 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 
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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.   
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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.
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