Extraction and Representation of Three-Dimensional (3D) and Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) Parameters from Lighted Image Sequences

Methods and systems are provided that use images to determine lighting information for an object. A computing device can receive an image of the object. For a pixel of the image, the computing device can: apply a first lighting model to determine a first estimate of a bi-directional lighting function (BRDF) for the object at the pixel, apply a second lighting model to determine a second estimate of the BRDF for the object at the pixel, determine a third estimate of the BRDF based on the first and second estimates, and store the third estimate of the BRDF in lighting-storage data. The computing device can provide the lighting-storage data. The BRDF can utilize a number of lighting parameters, such as a normal vector and albedo, reflectivity, and roughness values.