The post from http://www.workbook.com/blog/1106 ….
I was in Texas shooting for a couple days at the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium. As a football fan and a fantasy football player (who happened to go 15-0 in my fantasy league last year!), I was well aware of all the excitement people felt over the new $1.3 billion stadium. After spending two days inside I could see why, the place is architecturally beautiful and, even while empty, is totally intense. The LCDs, the scoreboard, the dome, it’s something I wanted to try to capture in a unique way. Peter Godshall, our CGI artist/retoucher, and I are always trying to push the envelope to expand our capabilities. We used the opportunity to create a 3D spherical panoramic HDR image from the 50 yard line. It took over 100 photos to create the file. This project allows us to pull individual panoramas, as seen in this image, or it can be used for 3D purposes. For instance, if an agency wanted to show a vehicle at the 50 yard line we would have all the information necessary to take their CG vehicle and make every reflection and shadow look precisely right for that environment. It’s so much fun to constantly challenge ourselves and it always astounds me how quickly new capabilities will find their way into a project just around the corner.
It isn’t, and that’s the beauty of it. When I first started learning lighting as a photographer, it was explained to me that great lighting will never let the viewer catch onto the fact that the light is artificial. Now with CGI the same thing is true. Did you assume this popsicle was real? I hope so, because that would mean we’ve done our job well. As Peter adds CGI elements to our photos/videos we’d like to always leave the viewer wondering what was real and what wasn’t, wondering "how did we do that?" and always wanting to see more!