Sunday, July 27, 2008

Explanation of HDR imaging

In image processingcomputer graphics and photographyhigh dynamic range imaging (HDRI) is a set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range of exposures (the range of values between light and dark areas) than normal digital imaging techniques. The intention of HDRI is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to shadows.

High Dynamic Range Imaging was originally developed in the 1930s and 1940s by Charles Wyckoff. Wyckoff's detailed pictures of nuclear explosions appeared on the cover of Life magazine in the early 1940s. The process of tone mapping together with bracketed exposures of normal digital images, giving the end result a high, often exaggerated dynamic range, was first reported in 1993[1], and resulted in a mathematical theory of differently exposed pictures of the same subject matter that was published in 1995[2]. In 1997 this technique of combining several differently exposed images to produce a single HDR image was presented to the computer graphics community by Paul Debevec.

This method was developed to produce a high dynamic range image from a set of photographs taken with a range of exposures. With the rising popularity of digital cameras and easy-to-use desktop software, the term "HDR" is now popularly used[3] to refer to this process. This composite technique is different from (and may be of lesser or greater quality than) the production of an image from a single exposure of a sensor that has a native high dynamic range. Tone mapping is also used to display HDR images on devices with a low native dynamic range, such as a computer screen.

Comparison with traditional digital images

Fountain in Dupont Circle, Washington DC using HDRI.
Fountain in Dupont Circle, Washington DC using HDRI.

Information stored in high dynamic range images usually corresponds to the physical values of luminance or radiance that can be observed in the real world. This is different from traditional digital images, which represent colors that should appear on a monitor or a paper print. Therefore, HDR image formats are often called "scene-referred", in contrast to traditional digital images, which are "device-referred" or "output-referred". Furthermore, traditional images are usually encoded for the human visual system (maximizing the visual information stored in the fixed number of bits), which is usually called "gamma encoding" or "gamma correction". The values stored for HDR images are often linear, which means that they represent relative or absolute values of radiance or luminance (gamma 1.0).

HDR images require a higher number of bits per color channel than traditional images, both because of the linear encoding and because they need to represent values from 10−4 to 108 (the range of visible luminance values) or more. 16-bit ("half precision") or 32-bit floating point numbers are often used to represent HDR pixels. However, when the appropriate transfer function is used, HDR pixels for some applications can be represented with as few as 10–12 bits for luminance and 8 bits for chrominance without introducing any visible quantization artifacts.[4]

Synthetic HDR images

Computer-created HDR images were first produced with various renderers, notably Radiance.[citation needed] This allowed for more realistic renditions of modelled scenes because the units used were based on actual physical units e.g watts/steradian/m². It made it possible for the lighting of a real scene to be simulated and the output to be used to make lighting choices (assuming the geometry, lighting, and materials were an accurate representation of the real scene).

An HDR image made from three exposures and tone mapped into an 8-bit JPEG image.
An HDR image made from three exposures and tone mapped into an 8-bit JPEG image.

At the 1997 SIGGRAPH, Paul Debevec presented his paper entitled "Recovering High Dynamic Range Radiance Maps from Photographs".[5] It described photographing the same scene many times with a wide range of exposure settings and combining those separate exposures into one HDR image. This HDR image captured a higher dynamic range of the viewed scene, from the dark shadows all the way up to bright lights or reflected highlights.

A year later at SIGGRAPH '98, Debevec presented "Rendering Synthetic Objects into Real Scenes: Bridging Traditional and Image-Based Graphics with Global Illumination and High Dynamic Range Photography".[6] In this paper he used his previous technique to photograph a shiny chrome ball to produce what he called a "light probe", essentially an HDR environment map. This light probe could then be used in the rendering of a synthetic scene. Unlike a normal environment map that simply provides something to show in reflections or refractions, the light probe also provided the light for the scene. In fact, it was the only light source. This added an unprecedented level of realism, supplying real-world lighting data to the whole lighting model.

HDRI lighting plays a great part in movie making when computer 3D objects are to be integrated into real-life scenes.[citation needed]

[edit]Tone mapping

Main article: Tone mapping

One problem with HDR has always been in viewing the images. Typical computer monitors (CRTs, LCDs), prints, and other methods of displaying images only have a limited dynamic range. Thus various methods of converting HDR images into a viewable format have been developed, generally called "tone mapping".

Early methods of tone mapping were simple. They simply showed a "window" of the entire dynamic range, clipping to set minimum and maximum values. However, more recent methods have attempted to compress the dynamic range into one reproducible by the intended display device. The more complex methods tap into research on how the human eye and visual cortex perceive a scene, trying to show the whole dynamic range while retaining realistic colour and contrast.

Images with too much "HDR" processing have their range over-compressed, creating a surreal low-dynamic-range rendering of a high-dynamic-range scene.

[edit]Image Sensors

CMOS image sensors are now capable of creating HDR images up to 110dB, for chips up to 2mp, and form factors of 1/5", immediately, for low cost in contrast to extremely costly CCD sensors.

Sensors can produce HDR images inherently and seamlessly.

[edit]Exposure examples

Three exposures of the same image.
Three exposures of the same image.

Here the dynamic range of the image is demonstrated by adjusting the "exposure" when tone-mapping the HDR image into an LDR one for display. The above sequence uses an image rendered with Radiance using Paul Debevec's light probe of the Uffizigallery. The rendering software produces a high dynamic range image. When making the JPEG images, one selects a part of that range for display. This is similar to how a conventional camera captures only a portion of the dynamic range of a real physical scene.

The middle exposure is the desired exposure and is likely how this scene would normally be presented. The exposure to the left is 4 EV darker, showing some detail in the bright clouds in the sky. The exposure to the right is 3 EV lighter, showing some detail in the darker parts of the scene. This shows why compositing is desirable; a composite image can retain the interesting details from all three exposure settings.

Panorama of Montreal from Notre Dame island


                       Click on it to see bigger

HDR 2ND TRY (now at night)



                CLICK ON IMAGE STO SEE BIGGER



















Saturday, July 26, 2008

DAY OUT OF TIME - DIA FUERA DEL TIEMPO



Year of the Blue electric storm

A;o de la tormenta electrica azul






What is the Day Out of Time?

Around the planet, this day is reserved for festival and community.

Central focuses are: Planetary Peace through Culture, Stop business as usual, Attest to the truth that "Time is  Art!", forgiveness, atonement, freeing of debts, purification, the Art of Peace...

 The Day out of Time, celebrated annually since 1992, always falls on July 25th. On the 13 Moon calendar, this day is no day of the month, and no day of the week. It is inbetween the closing of the previous year (July 24th) and the dawning of the new year (July 26th). The offical flag for the Day out of Time is the Banner of Peace.  

This flag is flown in 71 Brazilian cities alone, where it is recognized as an official municipal holiday. In Japan, over 100 Day out of Time Festivals displayed this symbol to unify our intentions of "Planetary Peace Through Culture." This day is an opportunity to experience the freedom of being alive, true timelessness and loving kindness. Whether public gatherings or private circles, this day is a catalytic launch-pad for the year to come, a great, global harnessing of telepathic presence, and a perfect way to invite new participants into the harmony of the 13 Moon Calendar. The celebration begins in the heart!

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En todo el planeta, el DĆ­a Fuera del Tiempo, es un dĆ­a reservado para el festival y la comunidad...

Los focos centrales son: Paz Planetaria a travĆ©s de la Cultura; detener el negocio, como siempre; atender a la verdad de que "El Tiempo es Arte"; perdĆ³n; ponerse a tono; liberaciĆ³n de deudas; purificaciĆ³n; el Arte de la Paz...

El Dƭa Fuera del Tiempo, celebrado anualmente desde 1992, siempre cae 25 de Julio. En la Cuenta de 13 Lunas, este dƭa no pertenece a ninguna Luna (mes), ni ninguna semana (o HƩptada). EstƔ entre medio del cierre del aƱo previo (24 de Julio), y el amanecer del nuevo aƱo (26 de Julio). La bandera oficial para el Dƭa Fuera del Tiempo es la Bandera de la Paz.

Esta bandera es izada en 71 ciudades brasileras, donde es reconocido como un dĆ­a festivo municipal oficial. En JapĆ³n, mĆ”s de 100 Festivales para el DĆ­a Fuera del Tiempo, desplegaron este sĆ­mbolo para unificar nuestras intenciones de "Paz Planetaria a TravĆ©s de la Cultura". Este dĆ­a es una oportunidad para experimentar la libertad de estar vivos, realmente sin tiempo y amorosa bondad. Ya sea en reuniones pĆŗblicas o cĆ­rculos privados, este dĆ­a es una plataforma de despegue catalizadora para el aƱo que viene, un gran aprovechamiento de la Presencia TelepĆ”tica, y una manera perfecta de invitar nuevos participantes a la ArmonĆ­a de las 13 Lunas. La CelebraciĆ³n comienza en el CorazĆ³n!



Friday, July 18, 2008

FULL MOON





Today is GURU PURNIMA. It is a very sacred day in Hindu Mythology. It is a full moon night and from Today onwards the moon starts reducing in size, leading to Amawasya (the dark night). People who believe or worship Guru’s (in human form), pray to them as their God’s today offering them clothes, food, fruits, etc. 

To explain in detail, 

The full moon day in the Hindu month of Ashad (July-August) is observed as the auspicious day of Guru Purnima, a day sacred to the memory of the great sage Vyasa. All Hindus are indebted to this ancient saint who edited the four Vedas, wrote the 18 Puranas, the Mahabharata and the Srimad Bhagavata. Vyasa even taught Dattatreya, who is regarded as the Guru of Gurus. On this day, all spiritual aspirants and devotees worship Vyasa in honor of his divine personage and all disciples perform a 'Puja' of their respective spiritual preceptor or 'Gurudevs' 


 have seen our elders fast on this day from her childhood. They worship and perform ‘Lord Satya Narayan’ Katha, today and break their fast after offering prayers to the Moon at night. 

The Need for A Guru: 

The Sanskrit root "Gu" means 
darkness or ignorance. "Ru" denotes the remover of that darkness. Therefore one who removes darkness of our ignorance is a Guru. Only he who removes our ultimate darkness, known as Maya, and who inspires and guides us on to the path of God-realization is the true Guru. Students also refer to their schoolteacher or college lecturer as guru. The connotation of the word guru in this case is one who imparts temporal knowledge (Apara Vidya) and is thus accordingly offered respect. 
An example of Guru Purnima and the role of Guru can be understood by the following, 

In India, Santh SaiBaba is believed and worshipped as an incarnation of Sai Baba. His glance means end of all the sins of man and his touch signifies the touch of the Lord. In KALIYUG, when evil rules the world, the need of a Guru like Santh Sai Baba is like heaven in hell. 

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Photo Alteration 5

                         MEXICO 



     ALBAƱIL AND CHABELO


      POLICIA AND PALETERO



      CHAPULIN COLORADO AND ALUSHE



     CEPILLIN AND SALINAS



        CANTINFLAS