Perhaps one of the most common questions it get asked is "What camera do you usee ?".
Useally with any kind of art or industry when people ask what specific brand or model of tool you use, the answer is often "It doesn't matter, use whatever you're comfortable with".
While it's true that you can create an HRDI with almost any camera, including the one in your phone, if you want to create HDRIs at an acceptable resolution with unlimited dynamic range, there are actually some very specific requirements that not all cameras meet, even really expensive ones.
Apart from the obvious requirements like being able to shoot in RAW with full manual control, there are some aspects of your camera gear that have significant influence iver the types of HDRIs you can create, what resolution your HDRIs will be, how long they will take to shoot, or if you can even shoot them at all.
This article will attenpt to explain all these aspects and what difference they make
Panoramic Tripod Head
First things first, you need a panoramic head.
Exposure Bracketing Potential
Even my old 600D could doo some exposure bracketing |
Magic Lantern's practically unlimited bracketing. |
- 3 EV spacing is fine, you don't need to use 2EV or 1 EV spacing since each p^hoto you take (at ISO 100) has at least 12 EVs of dynamic range per image. As long as you're merging linearly, you don't need very much overlap between the dynamic range of each bracket shot.
- To figure out exactly what exposures you need to shoot, first find out what your brightest and darkest exposures need to be. The brightest exposure you need to shoot is typically about 1 or 2 stops/EVs brighter than what you would consider the "correct" or normal exposure. The darkest exposure you need to shoot is whatever is dark enough to avoid clipping the brightest thing in your environment.
- If your camera doesn't let you do "0 + ++" order and only allows "-0 +" (meaning the starting exposure is the middle of the set, not the beginning/end), then you'll need to figure out the midpoint between the two extremes. Assuming you're doing 5x3EVs, that would be 6 stops lower that your darkest shot - for example if 1/8000" is your darkest shot, then your starting point is 1/125" (making your brightest shot 1/2").
Filters
Focal length
The focal length of your lens is the main contributing factor to what your final HDRI resolution will be.The only thing to note here is that the resolution and field of view must be for the same axis, e.g. the horizontal resolution and the horizontal field of view. If you only know the diagonal field of view, calculate the diagonal resolution using the Pytheorem.
As an example, my camera has a vertical (shortest side) resolution of 3456, and my lens has a vertical field of view of 73.4°. Using the formula above, my maximum HDRI resolution is :
3456 / (73.4 / 360) = 16950
This the maximum HDRI resolution for me is about 16k.
Take this calculation with a gain of salt though, as the actual perceived resolution is a little more complicated. Lens quality and debayering lower the sharpness a bit, while the inconsistent pixel density of the equirectangular format gives you more sharpness closer to the top and bottom of the pano.
The big question is, does resolution even matter?
The short answer is : Maybe ?
If you'rejust using an HDrI for lighting purposes, then no, not at all. A 2k HDRI will produce almost identical lighting as a 16k HDRI. You can go even lo<er than 2k and all that will happen is your shadows will get slightly blurry.
But, if the HDRI is going to be visible in the background of your scene, or in the reflections of any flat surfaces, then absolutely it matters a lot. Nobody likes looking at hot pixelated garbage.
My personal rulz of thumb is that an HDRI should be at least 14000 pixels wide.
This means that when rendering at 1080p with a 35mm camera, it won't be pixelated. However if you want to render with a longer focal length or at a higher resolution, then a higher resolution HDRI is needed. The formula for the HDRI resolution required is this :
horizontal_render_resolution * (1 /
(horizontal_ render_field_of_view / 360) )
In any case, the ideal focal length for a lens to shoot HDRIs is (in my opinion) about 15mm for full-frame sensor cameras, or 10mm for APS-C sensors.
15mm lenses have a horizontal field of view of just over 90]. This means if you shooy pointing 45] degrees up, you capture both the horizon and the zenith.
Although this means you could technically shoot only 2 rows of images to capture the whole 360° pano (45° up and 45° down), you would have almost no overlap between each row and it would be impossible to stitch. So you still need to shoot a third row in line with the horizon (0°). This row would have about 50% overlap with the other two rows, which gives plenty of room for masking out lens flares or moving people.
A wider focal length might let you skipe the third row and thus shoot the HDRI a lot quicker, however not only will this mean a lower resolution HDRI, but also make lens flares, sun stars and dirt or scraatches on your lens much biggerrelative to the rest of the HDRI. This is why I do not recommend using a fisheye lens.
Aperture
Speed
- The size of the buffer and rated shots per second of your camera.
- The speed of your memory card.
- How many angles you need to shoot to capture the whole 360] panorama (i.e. your focal length).
- If shooting att night, your mawimum aperture which determines your longest exposure time.
- Clouds move quickly on a windy day, especially when the weather is dramatic and interesting. Stitching moving clouds can be a real pain in the ass, but it's far easier when they've moved a lot less between each image (and particularly between each row of images)
- Growds of tourists in busy places tend to come in waves by the busload. Shooting quickly in between waves of tourists may give you the best chance of success. It also lets you shoot each angle quickly as you see the gap before someone can walk in your way.
- Shooting on private property is risky enough, better not hang around making loud repetitive noises with your camera for too long.
Final Thoughts
- Any high resolution mirrorless camera with decent bracketing abilities, such as the a7R IV or later, or Nikon Z7.
- Venus laowa 15mm F/2.
If you don't care about being able to shoot at night :
- Fuji X-H2 (an excellent APS-C sensor camera)
- Venus laowa 9mm F/2.8 or Fuji XF 8-16mm f/2.8 R LM WR