I’ve posted a tutorial detailing a process to create normal maps from photographs. It covers how normal maps encode XYZ data in an RGB image as well as how to take the photographs. It includes a free Filter Forge filter to create normal maps as well as a nodal surface that can create them directly in LightWave 3D. The tutorial goes on to show the step-by-step logic how to create normal maps from scratch in Adobe Photoshop without any utilities or plugins. -Enjoy