When taking pictures for use in UV mapping, what should I be aware of?
I’m going to be taking pictures of highly reflective and highly textured metals, slightly reflective and high textured metals, highly reflective polished concrete, regular smooth concrete and white painted walls both with gypsum board and masonry.
Specifically what I’m looking for is mistakes that should be avoided. Assume that I’ll be taking 1600x1200 photos and cropping them to 1024x1024
Two things that come to mind are;
1: Lighting, Avoid using flash, if possible take the pictures on a rainy day/overcast. Also take notice of the angle that light comes in at so you don’t get to accentuated shadows. If you know a photographer, ask to borrow a reflectorscreen to help either even out or add light from the opposite angle.
2: Use low iso to avoid noise.
^^^To follow up Frizmer’s post: if you’re going for realism, you’re best off going for only diffuse color in texture photos. For example, adding reflections, bumps, and shadows should be part of your texturing process instead of being inherent to the photo. Texture artists spend a lot of time removing these features from photographs.
Photograph your texture from as far away as possible. This removes perspective and makes seamless tiling much easier. Use a longer lens (ie not wide angle) reduces distortion.
Use tripod or otherwise stabilize the camera to prevent blurring.
Turn off auto white balance so your colors are more saturated.
And while your camera is on the tripod use the self timer of the camera to fire the shot to avoid any camera shake from pushing the button yourself.