Photographing textures: equipment?

[UJ_41]

What kind of equipment is important/recommended for photographing textures?

Tripod, lens, external flash?

Thanks for replies!

[WhiteDevil]

I'd say whatever gets the job done.
Recommended would be something with the ability to capture images as TIFF or RAW for better editing, a lense with relatively little distortion and some controls over the exposure settings and you're good to go.

Or you can just go photographing with a cheapest of the cheap pocket camera at a cloudy day as well.

[darkpivot]

Make sure it's an overcast day so there are no shadows being cast on whatever your taking. Pebbles and small rocks for example, you shouldn't take a picture of them when the rocks are casting shadows on eachother.

[Gambini]

I was going to say take them in a cloudy day but i see everybody already knows that. It helps too to occlude the flash with your finger instead of disabling it. Thus, the diaphragm closes fast avoiding blurry results due to the higher exposure level. Well, that also can be achieved by tinkering around with the camera setups, but i´m too lazy for that.

[whiffen]

Equipment comes in handy but a lot of what goes into making a good texture is how you photograph it.

The main two things you should have are a tall tripod and a camera with a wide focal length.

Like the other posters have suggested you don't want anything with shadows or uneven lighting. A good flash can overcome this but you need to diffuse the light or it will look unnaturally lit.

You want to have the camera facing perpendicular to the surface, and have a large area covered. If you take a close up shot of a wooden board you will see a lot of detail in its texture. However while this is good for models and high end renders they are often less useful because this detail takes up a smaller portion of a whole wooden board. Unless you stitch a huge amount of these together but that would make a textures who's resolution is not useful in realtime applications. Having one detailed close up shot to work with you will find yourself having to tile it multiple times over to occupy the whole board, and the tilling of the same detailed pattern doesn't look natural.

Eliminate irregularity's from the scene to produce better starting material when making the textures, less post processing work later.

Take reference photos of the scene you are photographing to make the textures, this way you can recall how the texture pictures you've just taken relate to the real world.

Take multiple photos of the same texture in different positions, for a wider sample of stock photos to make your textures from.

If you are taking pictures of natural environments take note of the blending between two specific textures, and it might come in handy to bring along a solid colour of sheet, not the same colour of the subject so you can more easily cut out details. This works great for foliage, grab a sample of grasses and plants growing and lay them on the sheet. These can be cut out later and then used to make 2D sprites that spawn on your displacements.

Be consistent in your texture scale, and try to keep the aperture at a higher value. (more depth in focus) 5.6 and up so you don't have inconsistent depth across the picture, as you aren't likely to be perfectly perpendicular to the subject at all times. Don't go to high though, more depth does not mean more sharpness. Most lenses are sharpest near the mid range, and if you are hand holding the camera this often means a longer shutter time, and any movement while exposing will blur the detail.

[UJ_41]

Thanks again for your replies!

So it's recommended to avoid using the flash?

What about the lens? Would you recommend a zoom or macro lens for that job?

[cheesemoo0]

Correct do not use flash unless you can diffuse it. You want whatever you are taking a picture of as evenly light as possible.

Make sure that you are aware of any fish-eye effect your camera might have. Take a picture of some lines and see how it turns out. You can look up at what values to do lens correction in Photoshop online.

You have no need for a macro lens unless you plan on doing megatextures for models or something only good for CG not games. Stick with a zoom lens.

[darkpivot]

@whiffen
Wow, that was seriously the best guide for taking texture photos ever.

[Phraggah]

Equipment comes in handy but a lot of what goes into making a good texture is how you photograph it.

The main two things you should have are a tall tripod and a camera with a wide focal length.

Like the other posters have suggested you don't want anything with shadows or uneven lighting. A good flash can overcome this but you need to diffuse the light or it will look unnaturally lit.

You want to have the camera facing perpendicular to the surface, and have a large area covered. If you take a close up shot of a wooden board you will see a lot of detail in its texture. However while this is good for models and high end renders they are often less useful, because this detail takes up a smaller portion of a whole wooden board. Unless you stitch a huge amount of these together, but that would make a textures who's resolution is not useful in realtime applications. Having one detailed close up shot to work with you will find yourself having to tile it multiple times over to occupy the whole board, and the tilting of the same detailed pattern doesn't look natural.

Eliminate irregularity's from the scene to produce better starting material when making the textures, less post processing work later.

Take reference photos of the scene you are photographing to make the textures, this way you can recall how the texture pictures you've just taken relate to the real world.

Take multiple photos of the same texture in different positions, for a wider sample of stock photos to make your textures from.

If you are taking pictures of natural environments take note of the blending between two specific textures, and it might come in handy to bring along a solid colour of sheet, not the same colour of the subject so you can more easily cut out details. This works great for foliage, grab a sample of grasses and plants growing and lay them on the sheet. These can be cut out later and then used to make 2D sprites that spawn on your displacements.

Be consistent in your texture scale, and try to keep the aperture at a higher value. (more depth in focus) 5.6 and up so you don't have inconsistent depth across the picture, as you aren't likely to be perfectly perpendicular to the subject at all times. Don't go to high though, more depth does not mean more sharpness. Most lenses are sharpest near the mid range, and if you are hand holding the camera this often means a longer shutter time, and any movement while exposing will blur the detail.

I know this thread is a month old but I really think we should put this in a tutorial so we don't lose it, lol.

[whiffen]

Sure, I was originally going to add pictures or work I've done but I became lazy. I almost didn't bother posting

I'll see what I can do when I'm home from work

[Phraggah]

Sure, I was originally going to add pictures or work I've done but I became lazy. I almost didn't bother posting

I'll see what I can do when I'm home from work

Thanks! I'm sure others will be grateful as well.