Misc. Inquisition Scenes.

[bleumune]

I had to disagree with esteemed coleague here on nocturnal vision (or any other form of low-light). When the iris opens to the max, in low light we don't actually receive more light from darker areas, they remain dark. We receive proportionally more light from areas that alredy emit any kind of light in the first place. It's what digital tools call GAMMA factor.

For example, I took the liberty of adjusting what I believe would be a normal physiological perception in one of your images based on this gamma mechanism I mentioned.

zUntitled-1v3.jpg

Hmmmm! I'm not enough of an expert on light and the human eye's physiological response to low light conditions to really argue the point. But I remember when we got the first of the night vision devices during Vietnam. I had the technical background to know how the fiber optic light enhancement worked, and they didn't leave the darker areas dark. They just couldn't make those areas as bright as other areas which got more starlight. It was like magic, but it also resembled (to a far lesser degree, of course) the way our eyes worked when we'd been in the dark long enough for our irises to open wide.

That said, your enhancement of my image is really attractive, especially on the foreground character. I'm not sure about the background characters. Their shadows are much darker than those of the foreground heroine.

Thanks for the comments, though I don't know how to implement them in Iray renders. There's always more to learn . . .

[doe.1971]

There's a fundamental difference between eye adjustments to low light and night vision. Unless you talk about thermal cameras, which use a different mechanisms to aquire targets, a regular, infantry issued night vision works by having a source of IR light (a lightbulb if you want), invisible light that is bounced back by objects near you. Indeed, in those cases there's a saturation of background level light, due mostly to the transcoding (the conversion of IR wavelength range into visible range you see with your googles).

Somhow I doubt that's the equipment the inquisitors of yore were using in their dungeons.

If you want to do the same effect as I did, just open the image in any 2D program (like Photoshop, Corel Paint, GIMP or whatever you like) and find the GAMMA (or LEVELS in PSP) and move the median toward the darker area. It's pretty basic, really.

[wjhk93]

My default Daz poser lighting is like having lots of fluorescent lighting or bright sun light in an indoor setting.
Which bleumune's well lit racks appear to be. My question is what the camera sees without flash or flood light?
The answer is too dark, won't take picture. It's assuming what you see in rack pictures is with modern camera with proper lighting sees. It's not what the eye sees but what the camera sees in these terrific rack gimp pictures.
My two cents worth opinion. Will Burner

[doe.1971]

It's not what the eye sees but what the camera sees in these terrific rack gimp pictures.

That's undeniably true, but we strive to fool the human eye, not cyborgs.

[bleumune]

There's a fundamental difference between eye adjustments to low light and night vision. Unless you talk about thermal cameras, which use a different mechanisms to aquire targets, a regular, infantry issued night vision works by having a source of IR light (a lightbulb if you want), invisible light that is bounced back by objects near you. Indeed, in those cases there's a saturation of background level light, due mostly to the transcoding (the conversion of IR wavelength range into visible range you see with your googles). <snip>

I gotta add my 2 centavos here, JD, though I'm sorry to have to contradict you. But night vision scopes with IR illumination has been obsolete since before the Vietnam War. The problem with IR illumination is that the bad guys can see you with their IR goggles as soon as you flip on your IR source.

Starting in Vietnam, the US developed image intensifier capability that intensified available light by the use of fiber optics and electronic amplification of detected light. Thus, our stuff was entirely passive and couldn't be detected by the bad guys. I remember looking through the first night vision scopes back in 1970. They were pretty grainy back then, but we LOVED them! The VC/NVA couldn't sneak up on us like they used to! I also worked on the Army's Land Warrior program from several decades ago -- the images had gotten much better since 1970 but were still completely passive. They're even better today, since we've managed to combine intensification of both available light and IR (no IR source, of course!) as well as image recognition. Great stuff! Makes me wish I was still working!

[doe.1971]

I gotta add my 2 centavos here, JD, though I'm sorry to have to contradict you. But night vision scopes with IR illumination has been obsolete since before the Vietnam War. The problem with IR illumination is that the bad guys can see you with their IR goggles as soon as you flip on your IR source.

You'd be surprised, they still use them in many other armies, probably not US though. The IR source was not usually on the helmets but on the platoon's armored transporter so it could take small arms' fire.

Starting in Vietnam, the US developed image intensifier capability that intensified available light by the use of fiber optics and electronic amplification of detected light. Thus, our stuff was entirely passive and couldn't be detected by the bad guys. I remember looking through the first night vision scopes back in 1970. They were pretty grainy back then, but we LOVED them! The VC/NVA couldn't sneak up on us like they used to! I also worked on the Army's Land Warrior program from several decades ago -- the images had gotten much better since 1970 but were still completely passive. They're even better today, since we've managed to combine intensification of both available light and IR (no IR source, of course!) as well as image recognition. Great stuff! Makes me wish I was still working!

The passive ones (we call them thermal, hence my caveat in the post) were rather bad at distance unless it was really cold out there.

Anyway, matters little, as the eye doesn't have that elevated noise level of the thermals, we amplify the sources of light and leave dark where light is missing entirely. That was the point of the discution, if anyone remember. I don't know about you but in the dark, with the irises fully opened I don't see that high level of light. I see the dark as background and bright sources of light where light exists.

[bleumune]

I came across the first image some time back. I have no idea who the artist might be, especially since it looks like it has a Japanese origin. Anyway, I thought I could do a better treatment in 3D (of course, that's what I ALWAYS think! ).

I call it The Wheel and the Fire, since that was the main subject of the artwork that "inspired" me!

[wjhk93]

Blonde witches are more fun to torture and burn for sure. Terrific artwork. Will Burner

[wulf]

I came across the first image some time back. I have no idea who the artist might be, especially since it looks like it has a Japanese origin. Anyway, I thought I could do a better treatment in 3D (of course, that's what I ALWAYS think! ).

I call it The Wheel and the Fire, since that was the main subject of the artwork that "inspired" me!

Wow. When you do an 'improvement', you don't mess around. That is one sadistically awesome image that's scoring very high on my erect-o-meter. I like how the strappado girl would be sympathizing with her friend on the wheel, if she didn't have her own problem to worry about.

Magnificent work and thanks for sharing.

[bleumune]

Blonde witches are more fun to torture and burn for sure. Terrific artwork. Will Burner

Thanks, Will. As for blonde witches, I know that the percentage of blondes in Europe outside the Scandanavian countries was low, but I wanted the three accused witches to be sisters. I tried black hair, brown hair, and red hair, and none of them seemed to indicate sisterhood as good as blonde. So forgive my historical inaccuracy in pursuit of fantasy imagination.