Quote - When you ask about converting photos, it implies you plan to convert ordinary photos. There is no point to doing that. You will not match or reproduce the lighting of objects found in the photo. You will light the world with those objects.

The angular map format used by IBL is a recording of global illumination, coming from all directions.

Whereas an ordinary photo is a tiny slice of the 360 degree world, the IBL is the whole thing. By converting an ordinary photo to angular map and using that for lighting, you're telling Poser to imagine that the image is the entire world, and to light everything in that way.

If you have a generally wide angle image, with the sky/ground horizon exactly halfway down the picture, then you can get a general idea of the lighting above versus below. But you will not get the proper gradation of light coming from the sun (sun-filled sky) versus opposite the sun. (empty sky, clouds, etc.)

The usual input to the converter is an equirectangular image - a spherical panorama covering every direction.

My environment sphere accepts equirectangular images directly. In conjunction with P8+ IDL, that is going to match the lighting, without bothering with IBL.

On the other hand, if you don't have P8+ and want to convert, you can do it entirely in Poser. Load the equirectangular on the EnvSPhere, then get and use my GenIBL tool. This will generate the angular map format of whatever is surrounding the tool in Poser. This means also you could capture the bounced light from large props, such as a nearby house or building.

thanks!

poser 6 came with a couple of hdr lights.  followed the link to their website and found some free hdr images, but they aren't set up for poser

http://www.hdrvfx.com/index.html

IBL archive

http://www.hdrlabs.com/sibl/archive.html

 

i can't afford a SLR camera, maybe next year's tax return.  supposedly there's a method of taking a few jpg photos at different exposures, and a hdr software can merge them into a hdr image.

a hdr image is 32 bits

 

i've been trying to figure this out for a couple years now.  slow progress

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