What is HDRI

HDRIs (High Dynamic Range Images) are a special image format that accurately encodes the extreme brightnesses of very dark and very light areas of the scene. Because they accurately encode real-world brightness levels, HDRIs can be used to create accurate and subtle lighting effects, without needing to define any lights!

Normal JPEG or TIFF images can only encode a limited brightness range of 0-255 (i.e. the brightest point can only be 255 times as bright as the darkest point). Real-world scenes often have a brightness range that are many times larger than this - typically 100,000,000.

HDRIs are normally created using digital cameras that can record these extremely large brightness ranges and are stored in special HDRI file formats. Another technique is to combine a number of images with different exposure levels into one image.

LightWorks can read in images in HDRI format and use them as a virtual light source to light the model, without needing to define any other lights. Images rendered using LightWorks HDRI functionality are very easy to create and are extremely realistic because they contain very subtle, real-world lighting effects. Users can instantly change the complete lighting rig of the scene just by selecting a different HDRI source. Because the lighting is derived from the HDRI data, the HDRI support in LightWorks? also allows models to be perfectly matched to real-world background images and environments.

LightWork Design has created the LightWorks HDRI Starter Collection, a set of High Dynamic Range Image files for use with the industry-leading LightWorks? rendering engine. This Starter Collection compliments the HDRI functionality in LightWorks? and has been created so that customers and their users can see the difference that HDRIs can make to the accuracy and photorealism of their images.

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