Digital Stargazers’ Guide to Best Sky Imaging Websites

Whether you are an interior designer or a digital artist, there is no easier way to brighten up a computer-generated scene than using an HDRI. These High Dynamic Range Images have the capability to store more than 8 bits of data per pixel for a larger range of brightness.

HDRIs are a common concept in the CG world to create realistically lit scenes and to add detailing to the images. They can effortlessly transform your bland and colorless images into realistic virtual environments. It indicates the contrast between dark and light spots of a frame and capable of fixing contrast ratios for vivid images.

Being a newbie digital artists you don’t have enough resources to record your own Sky HDRI. However, there is nothing to worry since many websites offer free HDRI for users who have just stepped into the field.

This article will walk you through the top 10 websites to download free skies HDRI and will teach you how to edit your HDR videos with a professional video editor. So without further ado, let’s start!

Top 10 Websites to Download Free HDRI

Textures.com

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Rating: 4.6/5

Wouldn’t it be convenient if you could download high-quality sky HDRI in any size you want?

Well, textures.com offers a wide range of detailed and accurate 3D images that are available to download in different file sizes.

The website features an ever-growing gigantic library of PBR materials that can be customized according to the project requirement. The library contains 771 sky HDRI that are available to download with a single click upon signing up. The best part is that the website is ad-free, which means you can easily browse all the textures without these annoying ads trying to distract you.

Our Verdict

If flexibility is your primary goal, Textures.com is a must-try. Upon signing up for a free account, it offers 15 credits each day to download HDRI and texture for your projects. The HDRIs are available at a low resolution, but with a premium subscription, you can download high-resolution images.

Hdri-Skies

Rating: 4.5/5

Hdri-Skies is a premium website focusing on outdoors and open sky HDRI. It offers a magnificent collection of images differentiated in terms of time and location. It can be intimidating to choose a sky map from such a vast collection; therefore, the website offers filters to choose an HDRI from a specific moment of the day.

Signing up with a free account allows a free, instant 2k download. However, 20k high-resolution images are behind a paywall and require a premium subscription before you can download them. Hdri-Skies also has 28 volumes of payable full-spherical Skylum aurora hdr for professional use.

Our Verdict

Keeping the website free of ads makes it easier to choose the perfect panorama. By giving free access to high-quality images, Hdri-skies is good enough for young digital artists who have just stepped into the field and looking for helpful resources.

Rating: 4.7/5

2G Academy is a group of Indonesian 3D artists working to step up the game of Architecture Visualization by offering free professional high-resolution Sky Hdr for 3D rendering. All the sky maps are available on an instant download for commercial and non-commercial uses.

It offers over 1000+ sky hdri bringing a quality collection of sky maps for digital artists. Besides offering a vast library of sky hdri, 2G Academy also serves as an educational platform to learn 3D rendering with free youtube tutorials. However, since it is made to target Indonesian 3D artists specifically, the courses are in the Indonesian language.

Our Verdict

The cherry on top is that the website is free of bugging ads, allowing you to sift through the images thoroughly to find the perfect match for your project. Offering a gamut of free sky hdri, 2G Academy is suitable for most needs of amateur and professional artists.

3D Art

Rating: 4.6/5

Created and shared by 2g Academy, 3D Art has an ever-growing collection of high-quality HDRIs available for instant download. The site features over 100 impressive freebie sky HDRIs for commercial and non-commercial use.

The HDRI’s with the sun positioned at dawn, sunset, mid-day, and night allows artists to create 3D rendering at any time of the day. Providing a vast library of free resources, 3D Art is an excellent option for digital artists for their 3D Arch Viz Render. It offers free sky maps to any industry that needs to use sky hdri to improve lightning.

Our Verdict

If you want more HDRI, you can subscribe to the premium version. However, 3D Art can be annoying if website ads easily bug you. Nonetheless, the pros of this website easily outweigh its drawbacks. It is best suited for hobbyist digital artists.

HDR Maps

Rating: 4.7/5

HDR maps is an excellent website if you are looking for high-quality HDR sky images shot at different locations. All the photos are incredibly well-shot, with the sun at different angles in the sky.

HDR Maps features an impressive collection of more than 130 free HDR images that will help you get a broader range of colors in a single photograph. The best part about HDR maps is the wide range of 3D sky HDR images, which gives you many options to choose from. From mesmerizing skyline images with clouds to the sun setting or rising in a picturesque location, the images will surely wow you.

Our Verdict

HDR maps also offer numerous other HDRI with time lapses and multiple textures. However, these images might make a dent in your wallet. HDR maps are free of any ads, making it easier to find the image you want, test it out and see if it is what you are looking for. The website is also very easy to navigate, and by using the tabs, you can quickly locate the type of image you want.

HDR Labs

Rating 4.3 / 5

HDR Lab is another website with some fantastic sky HDR images. With multiple locations, different sun angles, clouds, and a wide range of colors, you will surely find what you are looking for here. HDR lab is precisely what the name suggests. It contains all the tools and tutorials needed to start working on HDR images.

If it is your first time working on HDR images, we recommend starting here as the tutorial, plus the handbook guides you through the whole process. The images are not too complex, making them perfect for beginners. HDR lab will introduce you to the future of imaging, taking you step by step, especially for young digital artists.

Our Verdict

However, the website does not have a very intuitive interface, even though it is easy to navigate. The ads that pop up might get frustrating and distracting after a while. Apart from that, the images are directly downloaded into your computer without you first having a look at them, making it difficult to choose if you want to look at multiple pictures before deciding on one.

Poly Haven

Rating: 4.5/5

Like the name, the website is an Poly haven for digital artists. The gallery features a magnitude of high-quality HDR images that will blow anyone’s mind. The best part is all these images are free to use, and you can download them quickly to your computer and tweak them to your liking.

Poly haven opens the door to possibilities for digital artists with the massive amount of free HDR images it offers.

You can access sky HDRs in every style with varying colors and angles and with or without clouds. The landscapes for each image are also different. The same image can be found in different color sets for each landscape.

Our Verdict

You can extract the image in any format you like, from 1K to 24K. Apart from that, the website offers models and textures to choose from as well. The website is extremely easy to navigate with a very intuitive interface. It contains work from seasoned artists and helps beginners who are looking for more polished HDR images to work on. Website previous name was HDRI Haven.

Pixabay

Rating: 4.7/5

If you are looking for high-quality, royalty-free HDR images, then Pixabay is the ultimate website. With over 2.6 million free HDR images, Pixabay will help you find exactly the type of image you are looking for. Pixabay offers over 1700 sky images, including daylight and night sky. The photos are extremely high quality with beautiful colors, sceneries, and props like cars, clouds, etc.

Pixabay is extremely easy to navigate with its simple interface that is modern and similar to google images. You can specify the type of HDR images you are looking for and then search for them in the collection. Other than that, you can also apply filters like the color, orientation, and size of the image to improve your search results.

Our Verdict

You can download the images you like directly on your computer without sign-in. This makes Pixabay effortless to use. If you are looking for more defined and complex images, then Pixabay also has a collection from which you can pay to download the images.

Free Images

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Rating 4.6/5

Free Images is another website that will let you access thousands of free sky HDR images. The images are extremely well shot with varying degrees of light and at different times of the day. You can find gorgeous sunset photos, sunrise, and beautiful orange hue midday. Apart from that, if you want mesmerizing night sky HDR images, then this is the right place. With stars, the moon, the clouds, and fantastic coloring, the pictures will make anyone sigh in delight.

While they all might be sky images, no two images are alike. With varying degrees of colors, locations, and angles, each of them has a separate charm. Also, clouds are probably the highlight of each image, and the coloring makes them look heavenly.

Our Verdict

Free images allow you to access all these HDR images and download them directly to your computer. The interface is much like Google Images, allowing you to scroll through the gallery and find the best shots for your work.

HDRI Hub

Rating: 4.7/5

HDRI hub is just the website for any beginner or professional looking to dive deep into HDR imaging. The website contains everything you need to start working on HDR images, especially HDR skies. The photos are available for all times of the day; all sun angles with models and without models.

The best part of HDR hub is that it understands the artist’s needs and the pressure they might be going through looking for that one perfect image. This is why the website is designed in a way that you can choose exactly what you are looking for. You can type in the type of images you are looking for and then narrow it down using the filters. And these are no kiddy filters. The filters allow you to select the time of the day if you want clouds, architecture , countryside or the kind of lighting you want.

Our Verdict

Not just this, but there are loads of filters to narrow down your search to find the image you want. The website is easy to navigate, even for newbies, and includes tutorials that will help you learn about the basics of HDR imaging.

Here was all about the top 10 websites to download free skies HDRI. However, it is always best to be creative and click your pictures with an HDR-supported camera and merge them with free HDR video-editing software like the Wondershare Filmora.

Filmora is a free and flexible video editing application with many tools for Standard Definition and High Definition video editing. It supports almost all kinds of formats, including MP4, M4V, MPG, VOB, HDR, and WMV. The gamut of tools allows easy customization and editing of the HDR video. You can add text, subtitles, music, color correction, watermarks, and more.

How To Edit Your HDR Videos with Wondershare Filmora?

Here are the simple steps to edit your HDR Video with Wondershare Filmora:

Step1Download and Launch the Application

Download Wondershare Filmora according to your PC type, i.e., Mac or Windows. Install it and run it. Launch the application to get working.

Step2Import Your Videos

Next, in the Project Media, go to Import and click Import Media Files. Select the files and click OK. The imported media will appear in the media pane.

Step3Edit the Video

Drag and drop the video clips from the video pane to the timeline. If you have added several clips, you can rearrange the order and click on the play button for a preview. Then double-click a clip to open the editing panel. You can crop, rotate, add transitions and artistic effects to your video. You can add audio effects and edit the audio track in the audio bar.

Step4Export Your Project

Once done, play the video to preview the effects. Now click Export on the toolbar menu, and a window will open on the screen.

Select the video format and adjust the settings according to your requirement. Click Export to save the HDR video to a local place.

And that’s all! It is super simple to edit HDR videos with Wondershare Filmora. The user-friendly interface and extensive range of tools make everything even more effortless.

Bottom Line

HDRIs are a great way to adjust the contrast ratio and improve the brightness of a computer-generated scene. Being an amateur or hobbyist digital artist, it can be tough capturing your own sky hdri. However, our top 10 suggested websites can be of great help when looking for some free, good-resolution images. And editing the video with Filmora makes everything even more manageable. The incredible gamut of tools and support for a wide range of formats makes it the best application for editing your HDR videos. Download it to add a personalized touch to your HDR video.

Free Download For Win 7 or later(64-bit)

Free Download For macOS 10.14 or later

Free Download For macOS 10.14 or later