Sky 031 Cloudy Sun HDRI

About this asset

Layered blue-grey clouds surround a bright opening near the lower center of the sky, above a black lower half in the supplied preview.

Lighting and scene uses

The bright opening provides a direction to work with while the cloud layers add changing shapes to reflections. Try it on a curved metal prop or a building facade and rotate the opening to reveal the form. Compare a smooth and rough material to decide how much of the cloud detail should remain visible.

Resolution and map details

The product page lists 10K, 6K, 3K, 1K files in .hdr format. Choose the resolution for the detail visible in the final camera framing and reflections. The web image above is a compressed preview; use the purchased HDR file to light your scene.

The supplied image shows the sky with black below it. Preserve this layout when previewing the panorama; add your own ground or foreground geometry for a complete scene. The JPEG preview cannot establish the lighting contribution of the purchased map below the horizon.

Compare lighting in your workflow

Learn how to add a ground plane for HDRI lighting so that your objects have local contact shadows. Use the Blender HDRI lighting workflow to load and rotate the environment.

Compare Sun and Storm Clouds HDRI to compare a bright cloud opening with a stronger contrast between sun and storm clouds. Keep your material and exposure fixed to make the comparison useful.

Compare Sky 030 Broken Clouds HDRI to compare layered clouds with a finer broken-cloud pattern.

Browse the HDRI lighting collection to combine environment, lighting and scene filters.

Creation approach

Photographed in Italy. The creator identifies the panorama as a photographic capture in Italy. The catalog image is a compressed preview of that environment.