Backplates are in the oven!

Huzzah! \o/ The $1200 goal has just been reached, meaning I'll soon release all the backplates I've got for existing HDRIs, as well as enabling me to publish backplates for future HDRIs too!

HUUUUGE THANK YOU to everyone supporting me and helping to tip us over the edge of the goal :) This is really amazing.

It'll take me quite a while to actually process and upload all the backplates (there are so many!) and build a system of displaying and downloading them on the site, but to give you an idea of what to expect:

• For all the current HDRIs, about 25% of them will have backplates.
• For the 60 HDRIs in the 3rd and final Vault (to be unlocked when the next goal is reached), it's about 35%.
• For the HDRIs I've already shot that'll come out in the next few weeks, it's closer to 80% with backplates.

The average number of backplate images per HDRI is about 20 - so if we assume the 3rd Vault goal is going the be reached, that's over 1200 backplates :D

Thats a lot of images to process, and I honestly have no idea how long it's going to take - hopefully no more than a few weeks (I'll still be making two HDRIs each week, and paying the bills with freelance work).

By "processing" the backplates, I mean:

• Culling any out-of-focus, identical, or badly exposed shots.
• Creating plain JPG versions from the RAW files (minor lens corrections, matching white-balance to HDRI).
• Creating "pretty" JPG versions to give you an idea of post-processing possibilities (increased contrast & saturation, horizon leveling, removing distractions, etc).
• Resizing to display thumbnails on the site.
• Uploading the RAW, plain JPG and pretty JPG files to the server and google drive.

If anyone feels like helping out with some of this, feel free to message/email me :) The files will be pretty huge, so only consider it if your internets can handle a couple dozen GBs, and you have experience with processing RAW photos.

That's all for now - you'll hear from me again when everything is published :)

Thanks!

-Greg