In this course Gleb Alexandrov from Creative Shrimp shows how Image-based lighting is an opportunity to achieve astounding realism.
If you've just started tinkering with HDR image-based lighting in Blender,
it may seem daunting. So hard to control the direction of light (Gimme
the rim light, you, Blender!). Even harder to avoid a blown-out
background.
On top of that, there seems to be so many things to wrap your head around: High Dynamic Range, 32-bit textures, Tone Mapping...
But actually, this workflow is MUCH easier than you might have thought. I promise.
After watching this step-by-step guide, you'll get the super powers to crush the image-based lighting in Blender.
All the project files are included, so you can follow along with video tutorials
Moreover, Greg Zaal has kindly offered us a couple of amazing 2k HDRI environments from the HDRI Haven website.