Looking for HDR Assets?

Hi All,
I am looking for HDR assets for my use, so I want them free. I am looking for an HDR to use for a space scene. I did a search like HDR ISS or Sun, or space but came up with only video and no stills to use as a 360 environment. Does any one know a good spot for these? Not like there a bunch of DSLR enthusiasts with access to SUN or Space shots…posting.
Thanks for any links.
Regards

NC

So is this an HDR image although it is in Jpeg container? I am not sure if I lose info due to not being in a certain container.


At this time of posting over a 100 views without a reply…

I don’t have a source for free (or otherwise) HDR space images but I can say with confidence that a JPEG image is not high dynamic range (HDR). You should look for images in .exr or .hdr format.

Thanks for the format to look for JRboddie. I am glad I did not try to get any information out of that jpeg file and think it is me not knowing how to wring it out in Blender… I may email that guy and ask him where he gets em…

Full of beans today are we Ikari??? There is no free beer nor free speech… If that is what your ‘drift’ was…

EDIT
Ah. Maybe still full of beans…

I have to ask, why HDR for space scenes, and what would you expect from an actual (realistic) collection of real exposures combined into a HDR? Typically you’d either get earth or sun in same shot, not both. If you get sun, there isn’t much else out there other than blackness :slight_smile:

For fantasy space stuff, sure, maybe. There might be something there like a nebula or global cluster or whatever. But realistic actual photos? I’m not grasping the idea, can someone explain?

Hi CarlG,
From my understanding an HDR image has information usable for sheen and lighting a scene. When doing textures with pixel information in them (They react to the light and cam pans) having an HDR makes for a realistic Background looking light.
IGE: Making a basketball sitting on a court with an HDR of a sunny afternoon is superior then using a sun light in Blender to create the nuances that a real sun would give you.
I need the sun shot for my space shuttle scene (do you have one?) so that the sun dancing on my shuttle’s texture has the information that make it look that much better.
Challenge using an HDR with the sun in it on a day (obviously) trying to key out the blue (for space) removes information globally…

If you’re just looking for an equirectangular background for a space scene, you could go to blendswap and download “earth in cycles”. Load it up in blender, render it out as a huge equirectangular image, then use that image as your space scene environment.

My argument is this: “All” space related stuff except star is fully containable within a single LDR (earth, background stars, maybe even moon would be well enough defined). For sun or other star in the system, add a normal light or textured sphere if you need nuances (I can’t imagine why though :)).

I’m a big user of HDR’s myself, but I’m also well aware of their limitations and drawbacks, and will try to avoid them where possible. The two big limitations are:

  1. If HDR doesn’t contain enough stops (almost always), you need to do some trickery to the output in order to get pronounced shadows back. This trickery will never be accurate in the first place wrt mimic what was actually shot.
  2. You can’t really adjust them. High or low sun, what level of overcast? We’re stuck with what’s in the image.

In your example, you want the earth and sun to light and reflect off a space station, right? The only place LDR would be insufficient would be where the sea reflects the sun (but even here the nuances would be on microscale and fully ignorable), as all other information is fully containable within low dynamic range.

I’d say your better off using a sphere as earth (maybe some atmosphere object surrounding it), and then lighting it all with a spherical sun. You can now adjust what parts of the earth you want to reflect, position the lightsource where you want it, and adjust its size to get the right shadow.

HDR definitely has its uses, but all HDR’s available can’t be used for anything, and many don’t contain enough exposures to accurately define the whitepoint. Space HDRs probably doesn’t exist because it’s kinda of hard to achieve good setups with an earth moving very fast below :slight_smile: