The time is ripe for the merging of photography and 3D
Posted By
Gisela Reger on
July 01, 2009 12:00 am |
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(July 1, 2009) When asking a photographer about his or her experience with 3D-technology one often still meets negative bias, misinformation and maybe even risks offending someone‚s professional honor. The photographic community often sites an artificial feel to 3D-programs and applications that they are uninspiring and don‚t foster creativity. 10 or 15 years ago that was probably true, but after a period of great and rapid developments and improving earlier solutions, today‚s technology has progressed to a point where even the trained eye has difficulties to distinguish between an actual photograph and a 3D-rendering.
During a traditional photo shoot the photographer has to capture the totality of the image, its mood, convergence of the perfect lighting etc.; it's a sometimes unforgiving process with limited touch-up possibilities, and therefore increasingly practiced only by purists and meticulous perfectionists. Current 3D-programs imitate the work of the photographer and alleviate the pressures of having to accomplish just about everything during a narrow window of time, conducive weather etc. The photographer now has the liberty to experiment, to test which background works best with the main object (e.g. a 3D-model of a car). Every material-choice, color, surface texture can be chose for optimal effect. Likewise, lighting and placement of shadows permits a perfecting final touch with the click of a mouse. While this sounds rather simple we don‚t claim these new techniques to be easy. It takes experience and a thoroughly professional approach in order to cope with a significant learning curve. Members of this new profession aren't called "CG"-artists for nothing. It‚s just that they make extensive use of computers & software and they take a lot of pride in the effects they create, making their audience go "Wow". CG-users bring objects to life, instilling their own style. The name Dosch Design has been closely tied in with this development for some 15 years. Hundreds of products and thousands of effects support creators of CG-content by saving time & money.
The latest product releases specifically for the depiction of cars, motorcycles and the like, are Dosch HDRI: Street Backplates Volume 1 and Dosch HDRI: Street Backplates Volume 2. They each provide the user with 13 backplate sets (115 individual backplates). Also contained are the respective HDRIs for lighting and reflections. Through the combination of the background image and the realistic HDRI for the exact location of the visualized object, very realistic depictions are possible. The Backplates series will be expanded over the next few months, providing additional themes like country road and highway.
Looking towards the future we believe the presently remaining acceptance issues with 3D-technology in the photography community will further disappear, allowing a mutually enriching convergence for many applications. It's a vision offering countless possibilities.