Hi,

I followed an IBL tutorial and noticed that Poser (7) IBL light using real hdr file turned the scene to be white (over burned for all contrast values I tried).
I then used a jpg that came with this hdr (circled image) and I got nice results (well, except strange stains in few places).
Question are, can Poser work with real hdr files?
If not, can I use any jpg or a circled hdr jpg required?
If yes, how can I convert hdr files to this jpg?

Thanks for your help.

Hm, not sure if regular Poser 7 supports HDR... I believe you need Poser Pro for that.

To convert, you'd obviously need an image editing program that can handle hdr. E.g. Photoshop. Then you can just save as jpeg or whatever.

By the way, did you try just turning all the intensities down on the lights to see what you got? That's where I would start.

To convert HDRs to other formats i would suggest either HDRShop or (better) picturenaut. Both are free:

HDRShop

Picturenaut

poser 7 supports it.

Attached Link: http://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/free-stuff/genibl---ibl-generator

Here's the rendered image using the IBL.

Typically, I keep my HDRI set at 70%.

can i ask you if you have shadows turned on  the hair? it doesnt look like there are shadows but at the same time it doesnt look bad.

looks pretty good.

Thank you all for your help.

Believable3D, I changed intensity and still got white scene. BTW, I used only one IBL light.
ghonma, thanks for the links.
Latexluv, this link is great and I will use it, but take in mind it generates jpg, not hdr file.
ice-boy, I see now that the tutorial I took was indeed Poser Pro tutorial: poserpro.net/King_Tut/Lighting/poser_IBL.html
If Poser 7 can handle hdr files correctly, can you explain how?

Thanks again...

the same way like poser pro.
 read every thread from bagginsbill about IBL,reflection,.....

This time i'm learning and manipulating in all the way GC shader and now i use IBL or HDRI at 20-30% !

in case nobody already mentioned this, the use of a sharp-edged poser shadow in an hdri render may be intuitive, but is not in accord with the laws of optics IMVHO.  the whole idea behind hdri is that it should provide the sole illumination in the scene, leading to soft AO shadows.  however, in the absence of indirect lighting (by activation of the GIvariables using python script), hdri in FFRender is currently not up to specs as it is in more advanced renderers.

http://poserpro.net/King_Tut/Lighting/poser_IBL.html

^^^Regarding that tutorial---didn't BB say to plug the image_map into the intensity?

If you have Poser Pro you can use Bagginsbill's set up to create HDRI directly out of Poser. Sorry that I wasn't clear about that. If you have Poser 7, then you save out your jpg and then import into HDRShop and save out as a HDRI. I have also used Artizen HDR to save out as a HDRI.

Since the poster of this question is new to IBL and HDR in Poser, it seems to me that he may be unaware of one fact (without a demo render of his image, I'm guessing at this). IBL and HDRI in Poser is a diffuse light only. It has no specularity to it, so a second light must be added to your scene to handle this or else you will get a very flat, cartoony like render. My above examples were done with only two lights. One was the IBL/HDRI, the other was a spotlight pointed at V4's head. Turn the intensity of the HDRI light down to anywhere between 30% and 70%, and set the spotlight to say 50% to 70%.

SSAfam1, I have played with plugging the HDR into the intensity. This is if you want a white balancing effect to your final render.

SSAfam1, Latexluv is correct about the IBL image_map plugged into intensity.  It is just a white balance effect, and BB recommends setting the intensity to 200% optimally.  It does work beautifully.

Just a few quick notes. I'm overwhelmed with work so can't write my usual long answers.

• There is no "absolute" value that is "correct" for IBL intensity. It depends on how much light energy is recorded in the image, and as well how much ambient illumination you want from that image. A really dark image IBL image can be made into a very bright one by using a very high intensity, such as 300%. A very bright IBL can be made into a very dark one by using a very low intensity, such as 1%. The intensity is a multiplier, just like the "volume" knob on your stereo. When you turn up the volume, the music is louder, regardless of what absolute loudness it was recorded at. However, "loud" music is already loud even without turning up the volume. So, too, a "bright" IBL is already bright even at 10% intensity. The math is simple: illumination = IBL brightness times intensity / 100. Another way to look at it is this: When you use a camera, the correct shutter speed and f-stop will depend on how bright the world is, what your ISO setting is (or film speed) and how bright you want it to be in the picture. There is no absolutely correct f-stop or shutter speed. It depends on what you have and what you want. If I shoot in bright sun at 1/4000 second and f/36 on ISO 100, the photo will be dark. If I shoot the moon at 30 seconds and f/1.4 on ISO 3200, it will be so bright it will be pure white - no detail in the photo will be visible.
• A JPEG is not HDRI, even if you convert it to HDR format using HDR shop. An HDR image is, by definition, one with HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE. A JPEG is LDR, i.e. low dynamic range. So this talk of saving as JPEG and converting to HDR is silly.
• An LDR image can be forced to act like HDR by using a high intensity, above 100%. For purposes of IBL illumination, this can actually be good enough, even though certain individual intensities cannot be represented this way in a JPEG.
• IBL probes are those things that look like reflections in a sphere. However, probe images that were actually made that way are not accurate, just so you know.
• IBL images, whether HDR or LDR, are supposed to be in linear color space, not gamma corrected. Most LDR images are in sRGB color space and will not produce accurate illumination unless you anti-gamma correct them. You can do this in the light shader.
• Some HDR images are mistakenly being distributed in sRGB color space. Dosch has done this. Such lighting will lack contrast and be over-lit.
• If you're getting blown out white or yellow skin using ONLY the IBL, you have the intensity too high. If you cut it in half and its still bright, you still didn't go low enough. If you have to decrease it to 1% or less to get it to look normal, you probably have an sRGB image and you need to fix it.

Quote - SSAfam1, Latexluv is correct about the IBL image_map plugged into intensity.  It is just a white balance effect, and BB recommends setting the intensity to 200% optimally.  It does work beautifully.

I'll definitely try this at 200%

Thanks.