Simon-HDRI: Calibrated HDRIs for Accurate Lighting.
by Jettelly
Published |
High-quality HDRIs are easy to find. Consistent, calibrated HDRIs are not.
Many lighting packs prioritize dramatic skies or visual impact, but fall short when used as a neutral reference for lookdev, shading, or lighting comparison. Exposure shifts between environments, clipped suns, or inconsistent white balance can make materials behave unpredictably across scenes.
The Simon-HDRI Collection, created by Simon Lachapelle, takes a different approach. Instead of focusing on quantity or stylization, the project is built around physically accurate capture, calibration, and repeatability.
What This Collection Is About
Simon-HDRI is a growing set of high-resolution HDRIs captured across various urban and landscape locations. The emphasis is not on artistic grading, but on providing lighting environments that behave predictably in real production scenarios.
Each HDRI is intended to work as a reliable lighting reference, suitable for:
- Lookdev and material validation
- Lighting setup comparisons
- Asset preview and presentation
- Production lighting in small or large scenes
Rather than being tuned for a specific renderer or visual style, the environments are designed to stay neutral and physically plausible.
A free 8K version is available for non-commercial use, while higher resolutions are offered for commercial workflows.
Unclipped Sun and Full Dynamic Range
One of the most important technical decisions behind this collection is how the sun is captured.
Instead of relying on aggressive tone mapping or artificial reconstruction, the sun in each HDRI is photographed using a 15-stop ND filter, then merged with multiple exposures. This preserves the full dynamic range of the scene, allowing strong directional lighting and clean shadows without clipped highlights.
This matters in practice: specular response, roughness breakup, and shadow sharpness behave much closer to real-world lighting when the sun is properly captured.
Resolution and Capture Process
Each HDRI is built from a large capture set, combining 200+ source images taken with a high-end camera sensor and lens setup. The final environments are available in three resolutions:
- 8K (free, non-commercial)
- 16K
- 32K
At full resolution, the HDRIs reach up to 512 megapixels, making them suitable not only for lighting but also for detailed reflections in close-up shots.
Calibrated Color and Exposure
All HDRIs in the collection are manually calibrated using a Macbeth Color Chart, ensuring consistent white balance and exposure across the entire pack.
Thisis especially valuable when switching between environments during lookdev. Materials retain their perceived brightness and color response instead of needing constant re-tuning per HDRI.
Rather than pushing contrast or saturation, the collection prioritizes neutral, physically accurate lighting that can serve as a dependable baseline.
Licensing and Availability
- Every HDRI includes a free 8K version for non-commercial use
- 16K and 32K versions are available for commercial projects
- The collection currently includes 26 HDRIs, with more planned over time
The project is distributed via Gumroad, with optional support to help cover travel, capture, and processing time.
Where This Pack Fits Best
Simon-HDRI is particularly well suited for artists and teams who:
- Need consistent lighting references across multiple scenes
- Care about accurate exposure and color response
- Use HDRIs for lookdev rather than just background visuals
- Want high-resolution reflections without clipped highlights
It’s less about dramatic skies or stylized lighting, and more about providing a trustworthy lighting foundation.
Similar and Useful Alternatives
Poly Haven HDRIs Poly Haven offers a large library of free HDRI maps with no restrictions on use. The site hosts HDRIs of skies, industrial settings, interiors and outdoor environments in multiple resolutions ready for Blender, Unity, Unreal and other renderers. Licensing is open and frees use in personal and commercial projects.
Differences: Poly Haven provides a broader community-sourced collection with many environments and completely free commercial licensing, whereas Simon Lachapelle’s pack focuses on professionally calibrated HDRIs with high fidelity and specific photographic workflow, but only the 8K versions are free and non-commercial.
HDRI Skies Free HDRIs: HDRI-Skies.com hosts a large selection of free HDRI skies covering many conditions (dawn, noon, overcast, scattered clouds) and times of day, all downloadable without cost. They are ready to use for 3D lighting and reflections.
Differences: HDRI Skies specializes in sky-focused HDRIs tailored to outdoor lighting scenarios, while Simon Lachapelle’s collection includes both outdoor and interior HDRIs with professional calibration that can produce more accurate reflection and illumination results.
✨ Simon HDRI is now available on their official website.
📘 Interested in creating your own Tools and Shaders? Check out the Godot Shaders & Blender Tools Bundle, which includes: Blender Tool Development Fundamentals and The Godot Shaders Bible.
📘 Interested in creating your own Tools and Shaders? Check out the Godot Shaders & Blender Tools Bundle, which includes: Blender Tool Development Fundamentals and The Godot Shaders Bible.
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