The HDRI Handbook 2.0 is the most comprehensive guide to 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 levels 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.
In 2007, The HDRI Handbook was the first book dedicated to opening this technology to a large audience. These days HDRI is a fully mature technology available to everyone. Professional architectural and landscape photographers have already adopted HDRI as part of their regular workflow, and it has become one of the hottest trends for ambitious amateurs and creative professionals alike. Now, The HDRI Handbook 2.0 redefines its own gold standard by revealing all the latest techniques, software programs, and equipment.
Author Christian Bloch provides readers with practical hints and tips, software evaluations, background knowledge, workshops, hands-on tutorials, and inspiring guest galleries. Beginners will get a methodically solid introduction and advanced readers will be able to refine their technique to perfection. 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.
Christian Bloch is a highly acclaimed Visual Effects Artists who has been working professionally in the field for years. He speaks the language of an artist, and he understands that a hands-on tutorial is a thousand times more valuable to the learning of HDRI than scientific formulas.
A native of Germany, he works and lives in Hollywood, California. His work can be seen in StarTrek: Enterprise, Smallville, Invasion, and a growing number of movies. He has been a pioneer in the practical application of HDRI in post-production, especially on a TV budget. Years of research and development went into his diploma thesis about HDRI, which was honored with an achievement award. Since that thesis was put online in July 2004, it has been downloaded more than 15,000 times, and has been established as the primary German source of information on HDRI. The HDRI Handbook is the successor of Bloch's diploma thesis, rewritten completely from the ground up in English, and heavily expanded and updated.
