I'm trying to make a hdri environment map but i'm having some trouble with the gamma or exposure.
Here is what i'm doing:
* take 3 bracketed photos (-2EV, 0, +2EV)
* in photoshop: automate Merge to HDR Pro to get a 32bit .hdr file
* in HDRShop do the panoramic transformation to get a vertical cross.
* with isixpack convert this to a .rat file
* use this .rat file as an environment in an environment light with render mode set to raytracing background and light the scene seperately with another environment light with this .rat file but render mode set to direct light.
* put a mantra surface on a sphere and set the specular intensity on the Reflect Lights tab to 1 and the specular angle to 0.2 to get near perfect reflections.

The resulting image is way to dark, only if i bump up the gamma or the lightintensitiy of the environment light do i get reasonable results.
Where should i change my workflow to just use a gamma of 1 and a light intensity of 1.

put the gamma 2.2 in the viewer (mplay or renderview)

the output of the renderer is linear and it is better feed the renderer with linear data and correct the outputimage after rendering

Edit your $HOME/houdini11.0/colors.pref file and set it to something like this:

# Global Color Correction controls
ui.cc.lut.val := “”;
ui.cc.gamma.val := 2.2;
ui.swatch.val := 1;
ui.view3d.val := 1;
ui.saveimage.val := 1;
ui.imageview.val := 1;
ui.flipbook.val := 1;
ui.render.val := 1;
ui.renderstate.val:= 1;

sanostol
put the gamma 2.2 in the viewer (mplay or renderview)

the output of the renderer is linear and it is better feed the renderer with linear data and correct the outputimage after rendering

That would be a good solution if it weren't for all my other stuff to get wrong. If i just put a constant shader on an object right next to it, setting a gamma for the overall image to 2.2 messes up that constant shader.

And if rendering with PBR, put Gamma 2.2 in the “Color Space” parameter on your Mantra ROP. This affects rendering speed .vs. quality, and nothing else.

It also helps if your lights are set to work in exposures …….

Rob