material mixing with gimp

[paco]

During my experiments with a leaf material it occurred to me that that the mix material is the fundamental way to create complex materials. I ended up rendering various materials in a test scene and then importing them into GIMP layers so that I could adjust the components more interactively than re-rendering the entire scene. Ie, the transmission/ reflection components of glossy/ translucent materials. The problem is that GIMP doesn't have the dynamic range to adjust these accurately. Adjusting image materials isn't possible directly but you can adjust the colours globally. I guess I have two questions:

1) Does anyone else do it this way
2) Might be a useful standalone program - would anyone use it?

[patro]

hey,
don't know if you solved your problem... but there is the free hdrShop... you can also open tif, tiff, jpg, bmp etc..
you can adjust the dynamic range in it ad again open as layer in gimp!
or you can go through the gimp registry and search for a fake hdr effect!
hdrShop can read raw file image... and for gimp there is ufraw a standalone or also configurable as plugin for gimp able to import, read, save, export, edit raw files!

the solution is not simple... you have many ways to follow... but since you use the gimp... try to search in the gimp registry and you will find something useful for you!

hope to help