Reduce Dynamic Range of HDRI?

[leigh]

How drastically do you want to reduce the range? Or perhaps you just want to reduce the amount of detail? If you're using the image to light scenes (as opposed to using them for reflections), you may want to consider using HDR Shops Specular/Diffuse convolution option. Resize the image to a very small size (like 128 x 64) and then create a convolution from that, which essentially creates a nice blurry little image. These work really well for lighting because they don't have millions of different tones that have to be sampled by the renderer.

[Lederhosen]

Hi

I want something maybe halfway bewteen what you'd get from an 8 bit image and a HDRI for reflections (I already use specular/diffuse convolutions for lighting :) ).

HDRI is great for realistic highlights, but too contrasty for more evenly reflective surfaces, IMO - turn down the reflectivity and you've lost all subtlety long before the hot spot disappears. ..unless i'm doing something else wrong.

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