Polyhaven Hdri (2024)

FAQs

How do I choose the right HDRI? ›

If you capture bad lighting in an HDRI, you will then get bad lighting in your 3D render. Use a random low-quality HDRI and you will wonder why your renders don't look like the pros. When selecting an HDRI for your 3D project, it is important to choose one that has a high dynamic range and a high resolution.

If you're a 3D designer searching for HDRi Maps or Environments, there are a lot of great options for free downloads. Sites like Textures.com and Polyhaven offer HDRi Maps for free, and here at CGI. Backgrounds we have a Free plan that lets you download our premium HDRs for non-commercial purposes.

You need to use a much higher resolution HDRI. Lower resolution ones can be perfectly fine for lighting and even reflections, but not if they will be seen in the background.

What is HDRI? An HDRI, which stands for High Dynamic Range Image, is a 360° image that is wrapped around an image or even a 3D model for lighting and background purposes. It is created by mixing several images of the same scene with different exposures (from the darkest shadow to the brightest highlight).

While regular HDR or high dynamic range is fine on its own, intelligent HDR help provide a more refined viewing experience. The newly optimized HDRi even offers additional optimization for more precise color, gamma, and saturation, resulting in superior detail levels and more consistent brightness control.

HDR raises brightness to show more detail. This, however, can wash out bright areas on your display. HDRi takes content and ambient lighting into consideration. By performing unique optimization for your content and your environment, HDRi delivers an ideal image.

HDRI is short for High Dynamic Range Image. Digital cameras only have a limited dynamic range — that's why some areas of a photo appear darker than they do in real life. HDRIs give photo editors a chance to brighten the corners and create an image that looks more natural.

Depending on the focal length of the camera and how flat the surface is, I find an HDRI needs to be at least 4000×2000 in order to get crispy reflections on most surfaces.

HDRI Haven is where you can find high quality HDRIs for free, no catch. All HDRIs here are CC0 (public domain). No paywalls, accounts or email spam. Just download what you want, and use it however.

8K is a higher resolution than 4K—and that's it. Common 1080p screens have a resolution of 1,920 by 1,080 pixels. 4K screens double those numbers to 3,840 by 2,160, thereby quadrupling the number of pixels. 8K doubles the numbers again to a resolution of 7,680 by 4,320.

What is the difference between HDRI and 4K? ›

HDR delivers a higher contrast—or larger color and brightness range—than Standard Dynamic Range (SDR), and is more visually impactful than 4K. That said, 4K delivers a sharper, more defined image.

Traditional HDR monitors and screens provide at least 10-bit color depth and automatic contrast and brightness adjustments. More advanced screens with 4K HDR meet these standards and have a typical resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels, around four times the traditional HD amount.

This can be anywhere from a bracket of 7 to 9 exposures for each position, and ideally no more than 2.3 EV between each bracketed exposure. These images will be used to create the final HDRI dome, which will contain all the lighting information of the environment.

HDR offers more creative freedom due to its wider color gamut and contrast range. However, this also means you need to be cautious. Overdoing adjustments can introduce artifacts or noise.

In a HDRI, each pixel is stored using a 32-bit value, not an 8-bit value. This means the maximum brightness of a pixel goes up from 255 to a staggering 2,147,483,647. This value range is more than enough to store real-world brightness values.

HDReye generates custom 360° HDRi images for realistic 3D lighting and compositing, and allows you to use them to create realistic looking 3D scenes.