Capturing Light
The first step in IBL is obtaining a measurement of real-world illumination, also called a light probe image.3 The easiest way to do this is to download one. There are several available in the Light Probe Image Gallery at http://www.debevec.org/Probes. The Web site includes the kitchen environment Gary used to render the microscope as well as lighting captured in various other interior and outdoor environments. Figure 2 shows a few of these environments.
Several light probe images from the light probe image gallery at http://www.debevec.org/Probes. The light is from (a) a residential kitchen, (b) the eucalyptus grove at UC Berkeley, (c) the uffizi gallery in Florence, Italy, and (d) grace cathedral in san francisco.