[Radiance-general] printing floating point images

[Jelle Feringa // EZCT / Paris]

Greg,

Thanks for the valuable feedback!

Concerning the limited dynamic range of paper-like based prints, we've moved
to using transparencies and lightboxes for our output. We've been producing
this output with Durst Lambda printers, which use the same kind of colour
interpolation as the Lightjet printer.
Deep black is difficult to produce in this manner, since the material is
indeed quite reflective, and the backlit nature of lightboxes inherently
doenst do justice to pure black. The most beautifully printed black I've
seen so far was done with Gyclee printers, using up to 11 'ultra wide
gamuth' inks. These prints were done on matte paper, what's beautiful about
it is that the black is almost like powder, the detail and depth in the
black is nothing but astonishing. (see http://www.colorspan.com)

The idea of working with a Hollywood based company is an option in the sense
that its sure they have the technology to do it, but the size of ouput is
for the film industry is rather different than what I'm looking for (35mm
for ordinary film, 70mm for IMAX). Still I'll see if this could be an option
we could pursue.

"Ultimately, I think HDR displays are the best way to appreciate 
lighting simulations.  Until then, we're kind of stuck with low 
dynamic-range, tone-mapped prints and displays."

I couldn't agree more. Somehow I have the feeling hacking a 32 bit colour
Durst lambda driver could be an option. Since I'm not a programmer/physicist
I'm not sure if this suggestion is valid, but what if one could produce
multiple exposed lambda prints? Could building up the exposure increase the
depth of the printed output.

--- I realize discussing the particulars of a machine for output is somewhat
off-topic for this list... ---

Sorry for my uninformed openEXR bashing... consider it an over enthousiastic
expression for my affection of Radiance ;-)
Thanks for the link/paper considering this topic, it's a wealth of
information to get to the bottom of this! Looking forward for this book!

Cheers,

Jelle.