ABSTRACT
Digitizing objects and environments from the real world has become an important part of creating realistic computer graphics. Some of the best results that have been obtained capture digital photographs of objects from a variety of viewing and illumination directions, and from these measurements estimate reflectance model parameters for each surface point. This chapter describes a process that synthesizes the results for digitizing geometry and reflectance and extends them to the context of digitizing a complex real-world scene observed under arbitrary natural illumination. It describes the central reflectometry algorithm used in this work. Digitizing the reflectance properties of outdoor scenes can be more complicated than for objects since it is more difficult to control the illumination and viewpoints of the surfaces. Surfaces are most easily photographed from ground level rather than from a full range of angles. During the daytime the illumination conditions in an environment change continuously.
