does anyone know the best way to get height maps from real images? Any advice on lighting conditions, tweaks in Photoshop... Anything?

this is something I have currently been working/struggling with. Im finding the easiest way to do this is to make your image as simple as possible. Meaning, make the image as close to monotone as you can. Remember, highlites in the picture from reflective surfaces or the camera flash will appear as a very high elevation in Bryce (may sound a lil obvious, but its something that Ive been dealing with lately). I usually just make the image completely white and tinker with details after that, depending on the texture to make up for any lack of details in the modeling. Dunno if any of my rambling helped, but I tried :-

I find the best starting place is to de-saturate the image in photoshop, sometimes then inverting it too. It works alright for bump maps but if you're looking for too much more than that it is sketchy at best...at least for me.

figured I would give an example from a model I just finished. The pic is what I used to create the lattice (with quite a bit of modification in the editor window)...but this is basically how I do it

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=202654

Take a look at the link. The coin was created as a lattice from a picture. I didn't convert it to greyscale, just cleaned the picture a bit and took care that the edges are reasonably smooth. Put the resolution of the terrain/lattice up. At least 1024. Do not smooth it in the editor, just lower the height in the wireframe view. And yes, if you use the image as texture on the model, do not put anything into Bump Height channel, nor give it any value.

i'm trying to convert a key to a height map. getting a bit frustrated tho(REFLECTION!!). I'm not going to hav access to my camera 'till sunday, tho. I think i'll hav to just paint the dam thing white b4 i take the pic.

Hmmm, if you paint it white, you'll get steep sides. Try a little bit of creative work with Clone tool in Photoshop. It will certainly kill the reflections.

here...I did a quick key, its not great but just shows you an easy way to do it (not sure if you were doing a modern key or an antique key)...If you want the .obp file I can give it to you, just email me...hope this helps :-)

Making something like a key isn't really a problem, i was just trying to get it to work easily. I've made a pretty decent key alrdy using just PS, but i just want to kno how to do it from pictures, like, for example, if i wanted to imitate the front cover of a novel(u kno how they sometimes make the pics and/or text stick out from the rest of the cover). Or maybe making the logo that sticks out slightly on the back of some electronic devices, like a calculator.

Is this what you mean? If so, then its very easy to create...I didnt even need to use the lattice editor. Just find an image of an old book and apply it to a stretched cube...set its bump level to the desired amount, and viola! If you wanted to put borders/decorations and or your own text on the book (or calculator), its easy enough to do in PS. Just create a white or light gray decoration or text against black background, then make a lattice out of it. Also you can make a neat effect of indenting the decoration/text by booleaning (is that even a word?) with your book cover (just make cover positive and text/decorations negative).

thanx for trying to help so much, i'm beginning to see that there's probly no really easy way to do this. I'm just looking for a quick way to make a more or less accurate height map, which would make an exportable lattice or terrain. i guess i'll just hav to do it the old-fashioned way.

Attached Link: http://users.pandora.be/roobol

I make them manually in Photoshop, but for complex textures this may take a few hours per terrain. Details are in the tutorial section of the link above.

yeah, that's what i've done in the past.