High Dynamic Range Imaging for Photographers and CG Artists

SEBASTOPOL, Calif. -- The HDRI Handbook (Rocky Nook, $49.95 US) reveals the secrets behind High Dynamic Range Imaging (HDRI). Once Hollywood's best kept secret, this cutting-edge imaging technology is a method to digitally capture and edit all light in a scene. It represents a quantum leap in imaging technology, as revolutionary as the leap from black and white to color imaging. HDRI is the final step that places digital ahead of analog.

With this technology now available to everyone, the only problem was that it was poorly documented ... until now. The HDRI Handbook is the manual that was missing.

Included here is everything you need to build a comprehensive knowledge base that will enable you to become really creative with HDRI. This book is packed with practical hints and tips, software evaluations, workshops, and hands-on tutorials. A new breed of community driven HDR software is included on the companion DVD, so you can hit the ground running. Whether you are a photographer, CG artist, compositor, or cinematographer, this book is sure to enlighten you.

Topics include:

• Understanding the foundation of HDRI

• Tools for a high dynamic range workflow

• How to capture HDR images: today and tomorrow

• Tone mapping to create superior prints

• HDR image processing and compositing

• Shooting and stitching HDR panoramas

• Image based lighting and CG rendering

• World premiere of Picturenaut and Smart IBL

• Creative uses and unconventional applications

Last, but certainly not least, is the Handbook's new companion website at www.hdrlabs.com. This is the place where readers will find regular updates to the DVD, as well as galleries, forums, additional tutorials, and timely updates on technical developments in the changing world of HDRI.

Christian Bloch is a highly acclaimed visual effects artists works and lives in Hollywood, California. During the six years of his professional career, he has created effects for the TV shows StarTrek:Enterprise, Smallville, Invasion, Lost, 24, and Studio 60, as well as several movies and commercials.

His work has been rewarded with an Emmy Award, as well as a nomination for the Visual Effects Society Award. He has been a pioneer in the practical application of HDRI in postproduction, specifically under the budgetary and time constraints of TV production.

Bloch earned a degree in multimedia technology. Years of research and development went into his diploma thesis about HDRI, which was honored with the achievement award of the University of Applied Sciences Leipzig. Since his thesis was published online in July 2004, it has been downloaded more than 15,000 times, and it has been established as the primary source of information on HDR in Germany. This book is the successor to Bloch's diploma thesis, rewritten completely from the ground up in English, and heavily expanded and updated.

You can order The HDRI Handbook at a 34 percent discount via our Amazon affiliate link at http://www.amazon.com/dp/1933952059/?tag=theimagingres-20.