HDRI shooting (quick guide) / by Xuan Prada

This is a quick introduction to HDRI shooting on set for visual effects projects.
If you want to go deeper on this topic please check my DT course here.

Equipment

This list below is a professional equipment for HDRI shooting. Good results can be achieved using amateur gear, don't necessary need to spend a lot of money for HDRI capturing, but the better equipment you own the easier, faster and better result you'll get. Obviously this gear is based on my taste.

  • Lowepro Vertex 100 AW backpack
  • Lowepro Flipside Sport 15L AW backpack
  • Full frame digital DSLR (Nikon D800)
  • Fish-eye lens (Nikkor 10.5mm)
  • Multi purpose lens (Nikkor 28-300mm)
  • Remote trigger
  • Tripod
  • Panoramic head (360 precision Atome or MK2)
  • akromatic kit (grey ball, chrome ball, tripod plates)
  • Lowepro Nova Sport 35L AW shoulder bag (for aromatic kit)
  • Macbeth chart
  • Material samples (plastic, metal, fabric, etc)
  • Tape measurer
  • Gaffer tape
  • Additional tripod for akromatic kit
  • Cleaning kit
  • Knife
  • Gloves
  • iPad or laptop
  • External hard drive
  • CF memory cards
  • Extra batteries
  • Data cables
  • Witness camera and/or second camera body for stills

All the equipment packed up. Try to keep everything small and tidy.

All your items should be easy to pick up.

Most important assets are: Camera body, fish-eye lens, multi purpose lens, tripod, nodal head, macbeth chart and lighting checkers.

Shooting checklist

  • Full coverage of the scene (fish-eye shots)
  • Backplates for look-development (including ground or floor)
  • Macbeth chart for white balance
  • Grey ball for lighting calibration 
  • Chrome ball for lighting orientation
  • Basic scene measurements
  • Material samples
  • Individual HDR artificial lighting sources if required

Grey and chrome spheres, extremely important for lighting calibration.

Macbeth chart is necessary for white balance correction.

Before shooting

  • Try to carry only the indispensable equipment. Leave cables and other stuff in the van, don’t carry extra weight on set.
  • Set-up the camera, clean lenses, format memory cards, etc, before start shooting. Extra camera adjustments would be required at the moment of the shooting, but try to establish exposure, white balance and other settings before the action. Know you lighting conditions.
  • Have more than one CF memory card with you all the time ready to be used.
  • Have a small cleaning kit with you all the time.
  • Plan the shoot: Write a shooting diagram with your own checklist, with the strategies that you would need to cover the whole thing, knowing the lighting conditions, etc.
  • Try to plant your tripod where the action happens or where your 3D asset will be placed.
  • Try to reduce the cleaning area. Don’t put anything on your feet or around the tripod, you will have to hand paint it out later in Nuke.
  • When shooting backplates for look-dev use a wide lens, something around 24mm to 28mm and cover always more space, not only where the action occurs.
  • When shooting textures for scene reconstruction always use a Macbeth chart and at least 3 exposures.

Methodology

  • Plant the tripod where the action happens, stabilise it and level it
  • Set manual focus
  • Set white balance
  • Set ISO
  • Set raw+jpg
  • Set apperture
  • Metering exposure
  • Set neutral exposure
  • Read histogram and adjust neutral exposure if necessary
  • Shot slate (operator name, location, date, time, project code name, etc)
  • Set auto bracketing
  • Shot 5 to 7 exposures with 3 stops difference covering the whole environment
  • Place the aromatic kit where the tripod was placed, and take 3 exposures. Keep half of the grey sphere hit by the sun and half in shade.
  • Place the Macbeth chart 1m away from tripod on the floor and take 3 exposures
  • Take backplates and ground/floor texture references
  • Shoot reference materials
  • Write down measurements of the scene, specially if you are shooting interiors.
  • If shooting artificial lights take HDR samples of each individual lighting source.

Final HDRI equirectangular panorama.

Exposures starting point

  • Day light sun visible ISO 100 F22
  • Day light sun hidden ISO 100 F16
  • Cloudy ISO 320 F16
  • Sunrise/Sunset ISO 100 F11
  • Interior well lit ISO 320 F16
  • Interior ambient bright ISO 320 F10
  • Interior bad light ISO 640 F10
  • Interior ambient dark ISO 640 F8
  • Low light situation ISO 640 F5

That should be it for now, happy shooting :)