Feature Request: write additional EXR metadata

[Darby Edelen]

As someone using PTGui to stitch scene linear HDR spherical panoramas for illuminating 3D scenes it would be incredibly helpful to have information written to exported EXRs that could be used to reproduce the scene illumination precisely.

There is already standard (optional) metadata in the EXR specification that could be used. My proposal is for PTGui to write the isoSpeed, expTime, aperture data, and whiteLuminance values to exported EXRs.

Definitely open to further discussion on this topic. 

Thanks!

[PTGui Support]

Hi,

Thanks for your feedback, I've added this to the wish list.

Kind regards,

Joost Nieuwenhuijse
www.ptgui.com

On 8/22/25 06:48, Darby Edelen wrote:
> As someone using PTGui to stitch scene linear HDR spherical panoramas
> for illuminating 3D scenes it would be incredibly helpful to have
> information written to exported EXRs that could be used to reproduce the
> scene illumination precisely.
>
> There is already standard (optional) metadata in the EXR specification

> <https://openexr.com/en/latest/StandardAttributes.html> that could be

> used. My proposal is for PTGui to write the isoSpeed, expTime, aperture
> data, and whiteLuminance values to exported EXRs.
>
> Definitely open to further discussion on this topic.
>
> Thanks!
>

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[Darby Edelen]

And thank you for making such wonderful software!

I've enjoyed using PTGui professionally for years but only recently had my first opportunity to take my gear on a trip and use it for myself (professional adjacent I suppose). I had a lot of fun. By the end of the trip I managed to get my setup and capture times during the day down to a fairly reasonable 10 minutes or so. I brought along a 10 stop ND filter that I would hold over the lens for an extra set of bracketed images that I could use to mask the sun disk and it worked really well!

The night time captures took a while longer, but I still enjoyed every minute. Thanks for making this possible!

[PTGui Support]

Thank you, good to hear this!

Kind regards,

Joost Nieuwenhuijse
www.ptgui.com

On 8/22/25 10:04, Darby Edelen wrote:
> And thank you for making such wonderful software!
>
> I've enjoyed using PTGui professionally for years but only recently had
> my first opportunity to take my gear on a trip and use it for myself
> (professional adjacent I suppose). I had a lot of fun. By the end of the
> trip I managed to get my setup and capture times during the day down to
> a fairly reasonable 10 minutes or so. I brought along a 10 stop ND
> filter that I would hold over the lens for an extra set of bracketed
> images that I could use to mask the sun disk and it worked really well!
>

> PTGui_xahu0R1Srh.gif
>
> The night time captures took a while longer, but I still enjoyed every
> minute. Thanks for making this possible!
>

> buck_rock_night.jpg
>
>
> On Thursday, August 21, 2025 at 10:50:52 PM UTC-7 PTGui Support wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> Thanks for your feedback, I've added this to the wish list.
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Joost Nieuwenhuijse

> www.ptgui.com <http://www.ptgui.com>

>
> On 8/22/25 06:48, Darby Edelen wrote:
> > As someone using PTGui to stitch scene linear HDR spherical
> panoramas
> > for illuminating 3D scenes it would be incredibly helpful to have
> > information written to exported EXRs that could be used to
> reproduce the
> > scene illumination precisely.
> >
> > There is already standard (optional) metadata in the EXR
> specification

> > <https://openexr.com/en/latest/StandardAttributes.html <https://

> openexr.com/en/latest/StandardAttributes.html>> that could be
> > used. My proposal is for PTGui to write the isoSpeed, expTime,
> aperture
> > data, and whiteLuminance values to exported EXRs.
> >
> > Definitely open to further discussion on this topic.
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> > --
> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> > Groups "PTGui Support" group.
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> send
> > an email to ptgui+un...@googlegroups.com
> > <mailto:ptgui+un...@googlegroups.com>.
> > To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/

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>
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[John O'Connell]

Darby that's super cool, especially with the ND! Out of interest what lens and ND did you use? I'd imagine you had to do a bit of manual metadata editing to get your nd bracket behaving also?

[Darby Edelen]

Thanks John!

I used a B+W ND #810 filter over a Rokinon 12mm f/2 lens on my Fujifilm X-T3.

PTGui offers an Exposure Offset option in the Image Parameters so I didn't need to edit any metadata. I entered 10 in the Exposure Offset field for the ND set of bracketed images.

The Rokinon lens doesn't communicate with the camera body so all of the apertures are entered as f/1 here, but that won't cause many problems beyond (I assume) giving an incorrect HDR result in Absolute Exposure mode... and incorrect EXR metadata based on my feature request! So in my case I would need to take note of the aperture I was shooting at and enter those values in the image parameters as well to get the correct luminance metadata in an EXR when that feature arrives.

[John O'Connell]

Thanks so much for that Darby! I didn't know about the offset value so I'll definitely have to try this! I'm in the exact same boat as you, using hdris to light 3d and with a very wide angle manual lens on my camera. Great to see that the nd 10 will defeat the direct sun! I'm sure there'll be something like a bit of a weird colour cast with an nd filter - Joost have you got any recommendations for preprocessing those images or is there a sneaky tint method in ptgui that'll pull these images in line? 

Cheers!

[PTGui Support]

I always recommend to adjust the ISO column for ND filter images. For 10
stops you have a factor 2^10 = 1024. If the images were shot at ISO 100,
you would enter 0.1024 ISO for the ND images.

Exposure Offset is intended to be used for additional small corrections.
Entering large offsets might interfere with PTGui's HDR processing.

But if it works that's fine of course.

For correcting color tints you could try changing the WB Temp and WB
Tint values in the Image Parameters. You might need to find the right
values by trial and error.

If you change the white balance of some of the source images, keep in
mind that PTGui by default outputs at the average white balance, so this
will cause a change in output white balance. You can pick a fixed output
white balance in the White Balance side bar in the panorama editor.

Kind regards,

Joost Nieuwenhuijse
www.ptgui.com

On 10/5/25 02:03, John O'Connell wrote:
> Thanks so much for that Darby! I didn't know about the offset value so
> I'll definitely have to try this! I'm in the exact same boat as you,
> using hdris to light 3d and with a very wide angle manual lens on my
> camera. Great to see that the nd 10 will defeat the direct sun! I'm sure
> there'll be something like a bit of a weird colour cast with an nd
> filter - Joost have you got any recommendations for preprocessing those
> images or is there a sneaky tint method in ptgui that'll pull these
> images in line?
>
> Cheers!
>
> On Friday, 3 October 2025 at 11:27:29 UTC-7 Darby Edelen wrote:
>
> Thanks John!
>

> I used a B+W ND #810 filter <https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/
> product/1670039-REG/b_w_66_1101614_67mm_mrc_nano_master.html> over a
> Rokinon 12mm f/2 lens <https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/
> product/1039949-REG/rokinon_rk12m_fx_12mm_f_2_0_ncs_cs.html> on my

> Fujifilm X-T3.
>
> PTGui offers an Exposure Offset option in the Image Parameters so I
> didn't need to edit any metadata. I entered 10 in the Exposure
> Offset field for the ND set of bracketed images.
>
> The Rokinon lens doesn't communicate with the camera body so all of
> the apertures are entered as f/1 here, but that won't cause many
> problems beyond (I assume) giving an incorrect HDR result in
> Absolute Exposure mode... and incorrect EXR metadata based on my
> feature request! So in my case I would need to take note of the
> aperture I was shooting at and enter those values in the image
> parameters as well to get the correct luminance metadata in an EXR
> when that feature arrives.
>

> PTGui_bsXhgyRKVk.png
>
> On Friday, October 3, 2025 at 9:16:28 AM UTC-7 John O'Connell wrote:
>
> Darby that's super cool, especially with the ND! Out of interest
> what lens and ND did you use? I'd imagine you had to do a bit of
> manual metadata editing to get your nd bracket behaving also?
>
> On Friday, 22 August 2025 at 02:38:28 UTC-7 Darby Edelen wrote:
>
> And thank you for making such wonderful software!
>
> I've enjoyed using PTGui professionally for years but only
> recently had my first opportunity to take my gear on a trip
> and use it for myself (professional adjacent I suppose). I
> had a lot of fun. By the end of the trip I managed to get my
> setup and capture times during the day down to a fairly
> reasonable 10 minutes or so. I brought along a 10 stop ND
> filter that I would hold over the lens for an extra set of
> bracketed images that I could use to mask the sun disk and
> it worked really well!
>

> PTGui_xahu0R1Srh.gif
>
> The night time captures took a while longer, but I still
> enjoyed every minute. Thanks for making this possible!
>

> buck_rock_night.jpg
>
>
> On Thursday, August 21, 2025 at 10:50:52 PM UTC-7 PTGui
> Support wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> Thanks for your feedback, I've added this to the wish list.
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Joost Nieuwenhuijse

> www.ptgui.com <http://www.ptgui.com>

>
> On 8/22/25 06:48, Darby Edelen wrote:
> > As someone using PTGui to stitch scene linear HDR
> spherical panoramas
> > for illuminating 3D scenes it would be incredibly
> helpful to have
> > information written to exported EXRs that could be
> used to reproduce the
> > scene illumination precisely.
> >
> > There is already standard (optional) metadata in the
> EXR specification
> > <https://openexr.com/en/latest/

> StandardAttributes.html <https://openexr.com/en/latest/

> StandardAttributes.html>> that could be
> > used. My proposal is for PTGui to write the isoSpeed,
> expTime, aperture
> > data, and whiteLuminance values to exported EXRs.
> >
> > Definitely open to further discussion on this topic.
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> > --
> > You received this message because you are subscribed
> to the Google
> > Groups "PTGui Support" group.
> > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving
> emails from it, send
> > an email to ptgui+un...@googlegroups.com
> > <mailto:ptgui+un...@googlegroups.com>.
> > To view this discussion visit https://

> groups.google.com/d/msgid/ptgui/ <https://
> groups.google.com/d/msgid/ptgui/>
> > a3327e1e-

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>

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