I'm no expert by any means, but generally speaking there are pros and cons to both ways; chrome balls are quicker, easier and cheaper but are lower quality (fine for capturing the light in most cases though). Fish-eye/wide-angle lenses make it a bit more technical and time consuming but give higher quality results.
As rough guide (depends on your setup/lenses), a chrome ball only takes 1 or 2 pics to get the job done (x by multiple exposures). Whereas a fish-eye lens with a pano head would take 4-6 photos (x multiple exposures) and a wide-angle lens would take considerably more, anywhere between 12-30 photos depending on the lens and crop factor (x multiple exposures). Cheers Phil On 17 January 2013 11:59, olivier jeannel <[email protected]> wrote: > I've never captured myself spherical HDRI's, so bare with me if it is a > dumb question but : > Nowadays, to capture the HDRI environment, people are still using an HDRI > ball, or are they using wide angles (10mm or 8mm) fish eye camera lenses > (without any sphere at all) ? > > Olivier > > > > Le 17/01/2013 12:06, Adam Seeley a écrit : > > Quiet a few smartphone & tablet solutions around now as well.... > > Haven't use one yet but looking forward to trying. > > http://www.ononesoftware.com/products/dslr-camera-remote/ > https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dslr.dashboard&hl=en > > Adam > > > > ------------------------------ > *From:* adrian wyer > <[email protected]><[email protected]> > *To:* [email protected] > *Sent:* Wednesday, 16 January 2013, 15:25 > *Subject:* RE: capturing spherical HDRi's? > > and of course if you shoot Nikon (like you should, if you have any > sense ;-p ) > > http://breezesys.co.uk/NKRemote/index.htm > > a > > ------------------------------ > *From:* [email protected] [mailto: > [email protected] ] *On Behalf Of *Lp3dsoft > *Sent:* 16 January 2013 15:02 > *To:* [email protected] > *Cc:* [email protected] > *Subject:* Re: capturing spherical HDRi's? > > Hi, > > I've used this in the past for remote bracketing, works well > http://www.breezesys.co.uk/DSLRRemotePro/index.htm > Some other interesting bits on their site as well. > And I don't think anyone as listed it in the thread but best place to > look for basics and how things work is http://www.hdrshop.com/ > > Hope it helps > > Cheers > > Lawrence > > On 16 Jan 2013, at 14:35, Byron Nash <[email protected]> wrote: > > I find that the slowest thing on set is capturing all the exposures. I > don't have a tool like the Promote Controller or any other device to > automatically fire off the brackets. After seeing a video of the author of > the HDRI Handbook on set, I'm convinced the fastest method is a pano rig > like the nodal ninja with a spherical fisheye and something to fire the > brackets automatically. In and out very quickly. > > On Wed, Jan 16, 2013 at 9:08 AM, Jahirul Amin <[email protected]> > wrote: > Slightly off topic but this is pretty interesting stuff... > > http://fxguide.com/fxguidetv/fxguidetv-165-scott-metzger-on-mari-and-hdr/ > > J > > > > On 16 Jan 2013, at 13:19, Morten Bartholdy <[email protected]> wrote: > > We do pretty much the same - a fisheye lens shooting in 3 directions for > good overlap, 10 exposures via software control and stitch the result into > a fairly highres LatLong HDRI 360. This is good for lighting and in most > cases reflections too, but hardly enough resolution for a background. The > software control for multiple exposures makes for better quality HDRI's as > clouds, cars and pedestrians move less, and we can get in and record the > HDRI in about a 10th of the time we used to without it, in all only some 5 > minutes break for the crew for one HDRI. The Director and 1st AD will be > much happier too. > > The chrome ball comes in to use in tight spaces where it is hard to fit in > a camera on a tripod, but it is mostly sttting and collecting dust on a > shelf these days. Mind you, if we had more time on a shoot I would like to > have a chrome ball and a grey ball and have them in front of the liveaction > camera just after the clapper - it would help setting up HDRI's and lights > and balance the whole thing faster when lighting your scenes. > > Morten > > > > Den 16. januar 2013 kl. 12:11 skrev Anthony Martin < > [email protected]>: > > These days I use the chrome ball just for light positioning reference. > For capturing the actual HDRI I'll use a fish eye lens on a DSLR, nodal > ninja attached to a tripod and then shoot between 8-10 images (including > direct above and direct below) covering the scene. > Then load these into PTGui Pro and let it stitch them into a LongLat > HDRI. Works like a charm. Both quick to do on set and quick to assemble > when you get back to the office. > Digital Tutors actually have a good set of lessons on this. > http://www.digitaltutors.com/11/training.php?pid=599&autoplay=1 > > On Wed, Jan 16, 2013 at 9:22 AM, Cristobal Infante < [email protected] > > wrote: > It really depends how much time you think you will have on set. Most of > the times this can be a major issue, since they may need to move > the lighting setup several times in one day and you don't want to be the > guy slowing everything down! > > the chrome ball is probably the fastest method and still does the > trick. So if you need to capture a lighting setup fast this will be your > best bet. Defently worth getting one in any case (garden mirror balls). > > > > On Wednesday, 16 January 2013, Rob Wuijster wrote: > Yes, there's a version 2 out of the book, there's a page on the hdrlabs > website explaining the book and has links to Amazon for the paperback and > ebook. > > The site, forum and book are -the- main sources of information on this. > Of course there are other sites dealing with this, but hdrlabs has it > condensed into one big package. > > Rob Wuijster > > E > > > [email protected] > > \/-------------\/----------------\/ > > > > On 15-1-2013 23:09, Byron Nash wrote: > > I found the book HDRI Handbook really helpful on that site. I think they > have a newer version since I read it. > > On Tue, Jan 15, 2013 at 4:27 PM, Paul Griswold < > [email protected] > wrote: > Hey guys - > > I've been asked to help out on the show "Film Riot", and one of the > things we were discussing is creating your own HDR images. > > I know HDRLabs has a ton of great info, but I was curious to know if > anyone else had any good info or resources on the subject that I could pass > along. > > It's not something I normally do, so I wanted to make sure I was giving > them up-to-date info. > > Thanks, > > Paul > > No virus found in this message. > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > Version: 2013.0.2890 / Virus Database: 2638/6034 - Release Date: 01/15/13 > > > > > > > ------------------------------ > No virus found in this message. > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > Version: 2012.0.2221 / Virus Database: 2638/5536 - Release Date: 01/15/13 > > > >
