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Is there a way to make an HDRI panorama image suitable for use in a 3D rendering package such as Blender using only an iPhone?​​​​​ If my iPhone can shoot RAW images, and there are many apps that can stitch 360 degree panoramas together, why can't I find an app for this purpose?

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Theres a great iPhone app for this now called HDReye. Does exactly what you're looking for - def worth a look. https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/hdreye/id1566721813

In their words:

HDReye is the first and only iOS app for creating custom 360° HDRi images for realistic 3D lighting and compositing.

Just select your desired dynamic range, follow the prompts to shoot a bracketed multi-exposure panorama of your location, and HDReye will stitch and generate a 32-bit (.EXR format) HDRi of your location.

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I am not sure if you are confusing what HDRI has to do with panorama.

This will be a partial answer. I will comment on that.

  1. See if you have an application on your phone for manual exposure. If you let the phone to auto-adjust, all the images will have different exposures.

  2. See if the application can do some "bracketing" This is, taking photos with different exposures but in a controlled way. If not, simply take notes and take 3 exposures, you need to test if you use a 2 f stops of difference. Some cases might need 5 exposures.

Here is an old paper I did, where I made an animation and some tips on how to take the images: https://www.otake.com.mx/Apuntes/Imagen/EnviromentMaps/ It is about the middle of the page. But probably reading the full document will help you to understand the parts of the concept.

  1. You can use automatic software to stitch your images. One free is Hugin http://hugin.sourceforge.net/ Use the middle exposure images.

This will cover the "panorama" part.

  1. Use the exact same settings you saved on the first exposure, and replace the images of the additional exposures. Rename the images on separated folders so the program can be fooled without any additional intervention. The photos need to have the exact same framing, or some ghosting and misalignment will happen.

  2. You can now merge the exposures.

  3. Define if you really need an HDRI image or you want a "Tone Mapped" image.

The difference is that a real HDRI image is used as Illumination with a floating-point file format, (This is the part I said would be incomplete) I have not used any.

Or you can use a toned mapped image, saved as a normal file, let's say a PNG.

It also can be used as an illuminant, or a background but will not be a real HDRI image.

  • You could try merging the exposures before stitching them.

  • Try to find a program that stitches 16-bit images, so you can use the raw data of a single shot.

You could probably find more automatic software. https://www.google.com/search?q=panorama+stitching+software

Or look for alternatives to Hugin for example this https://alternativeto.net/software/hugin/

Some cameras have built-in panorama makers. But they are normally only "panoramas", not spherical or cylindrical projections, they lack higher and lower angles.

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