HDRI environment textures for Blender

Load an HDRI in Blender 5.2 LTS

1. Switch to the Shading workspace and change the shader editor's mode from Object to World, or open the World tab in the Properties editor.
2. In World Properties, click the dot next to the Surface Color field and choose Environment Texture, then click Open and select the .exr or .hdr file.
3. In the Shader Editor, confirm the Environment Texture node's Color output feeds the Background node's Color input, and the Background node feeds World Output.
4. Add a Texture Coordinate node and a Mapping node between them if you need to rotate the HDRI: connect Generated to the Mapping node's Vector input, then the Mapping node's Vector output to the Environment Texture node, and use the Mapping node's Z rotation to spin the sky.
5. Adjust the Background node's Strength value to change how bright the HDRI lights the scene, instead of re-exporting the file.

Cycles path-traces the panorama directly, so reflections and bounce light need no extra setup. Eevee rasterizes the same World node setup, and its ray-tracing options recover most of the same lighting behavior.

Which resolution

A 4096x2048 to 8192x4096 file is enough when the HDRI is only lighting the scene, since Blender resamples the World texture for GI at a lower internal resolution regardless of the source file. Use 16000x8000 or the 20000x10000 files when the sky is directly visible in the render, so clouds and the horizon stay sharp.

Sun and shadows

An HDRI with an unclipped sun disc keeps the sun's real brightness instead of clamping it to white, so Cycles can trace a sharp shadow from the World texture alone. 52 of the outdoor HDRIs on HDRI Hub are unclipped, and none of them need a separate sun lamp added to the scene.