Thursday session with Steve part.2

This session has been quite intense: First of all we started having a look at Camera Raw Editor (which allows to generate very high resolution pictures). What I found out is that a photo from a professional camera, can be saved in more format than I expected. For example, the format I would normally use are JPG and PNG. However, it is also possible to save a file as a CRaw file (where the C stands for Canon) (which is much bigger than a JPG file and it allows you to make more adjustments at the picture). Also, a CRaw file will generate a digital Negative. After pressing "done" it will generate another file that will not deteriorate in time. Finally, you save this last file as a TIFF which means it is going to keep an high resolution (much higher than a JPG). Despite all of those new notions were quite complex I am quite positive it is going to get easier after a bit of practice. This knowledge is going to be extremely useful because it will allow me to make the best out of the pictures I will take for my future projects.

Afterwards, we moved to the computer suit on Level 5 and we learned how to create 360 degree pictures on Photoshop. The process itself was less complex than I was expecting it to be. First of all we were introduced to the notion of "Equirectangular Image". This is an image which is in a way deconstructed so that each side of the image lays on singular file (just like it is shown on the picture above). Next, we downloaded an already-made Equirectangular image (of a Ballet room) and we opened it on Photoshop (screenshot below).

Afterwards, I clicked on the menu; bar above on the "3D" option and selected "Spherical Panorama" and "New Panorama Layer". The original image then shifted into something different, it was possible to move around and to look at it from a different perspective, as if you were looking around the actual space. This was extremely exciting because I wasn't aware of this option on Photoshop (screenshot below).

The next thing to do was to place an object in the "moving" image. Therefore, I needed to look on the internet for some PNG file to download and place inside the Ballet room. I decided to download a statue with wings and after placing the file I had to "merge it down" to the main 3D layer (screenshot below). My 3D picture was now complete so I added a few more elements to make it more fun and to practice a bit more.

Creating 360 degree images is something that intrigues me and I am wondering if I could be able to use this new skill to create Equirectangular images of some of the rendering I am used to do on SketchUp. I think this might be something to experiment with because it might become useful one day.