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RelightLab Cheatsheet

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Gabriel Bodard edited this page Apr 15, 2026 · 1 revision

RelightLab simple checklist

These notes were written for RelightLab2024.11 (the latest version may have a slightly different menu layout).

  1. Before importing photographs, check that they are all in focus and the camera has not moved. A wobble of even a fraction of a millimetre can spoil your model. Retaking (if your setup has not moved in the interim) or even deleting imperfect photographs would give better results.
  2. Open RelightLab. From the File menu, select New… and pick the folder containing your remaining photographs.
  3. From the Edit menu, select Add a sphere…*. On a photograph in which your black sphere is clearly visible, click to select three points on the edge of the sphere. This will define a circle that should give the outline of the sphere. You may drag one or more of the points to adjust the circle as needed.
  4. From the Edit menu again, select Find highlights…, which should automatically add a green marker to the spot on your black sphere which reflects the moving light source in your RTI setup. You probably want to look through your photographs (or at least spot-check a few) to confirm it has correctly identified the reflected highlights.
  5. From the Export menu, select Export RTI… You probably want the following settings:
    • Basis: PTM18
    • Format: RTI
    • Jpeg quality: 100
  6. Crop your image to only show the object you want to render (the PTM is a very large file, so any space you can save will really help with both build time and disc space.
  7. Select Build, which will open a save dialogue. Give a filename with the suffix .ptm
  8. Open the .ptm file in RTIViewer to check your results.

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