Table-top computed lighting for practical digital photography

  • Authors:
  • Ankit Mohan;Jack Tumblin;Bobby Bodenheimer;Cindy Grimm;Reynold Bailey

  • Affiliations:
  • Northwestern University;Northwestern University;Vanderbilt University;Washington University in St. Louis;Washington University in St. Louis

  • Venue:
  • EGSR'05 Proceedings of the Sixteenth Eurographics conference on Rendering Techniques
  • Year:
  • 2005

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Abstract

We apply simplified image-based lighting methods to reduce the equipment, cost, time, and specialized skills required for high-quality photographic lighting of desktop-sized static objects such as museum artifacts. We place the object and a computer-steered moving-head spotlight inside a simple foam-core enclosure, and use a camera to quickly record low-resolution photos as the light scans the box interior. Optimization guided by interactive user sketching selects a small set of frames whose weighted sum best matches the target image. The system then repeats the lighting used in each of these frames, and constructs a high resolution result from re-photographed basis images. Unlike previous image-based relighting efforts, our method requires only one light source, yet can achieve high resolution light positioning to avoid multiple sharp shadows. A reduced version uses only a hand-held light, and may be suitable for battery-powered, field photography equipment that fits in a backpack.