hborre posted at 2:36 PM Tue, 25 January 2022 - #4433770

Polyhaven is one of your best bets to find a suitable HDR although I haven't seen anything quite close to your description.  Many cathedral interiors I've seen are well lit and not brooding at all.  Chances would be that you take one of those images and change the tone mapping in software like Picturenaut, HDRShop, or any other suitable application.  Photoshop doesn't quite cut it ATM.

I found a couple that were suitable but the licensing was editorial use only. On top of having to sign up for membership.

I have, however, found some great old hall hdris (with super high resolution back plates) that'll probably do the trick... yes found said at Poly Haven. Still looking though, you can never have too many HDRIs but I seem to have too many forest exterior ones. I did find a sort of moody Cathedral interior through Blender Kit, open source, but I have yet to fire Blender up and take a look. I'll probably do that after writing this. Really what I have in my minds eye is a cavernous, vast stonework and intricate timber interior with high gothic window lighting. Now just a matter of compromising that to find something that works. I'm thinking the hdr for the fill and maybe a spot for the key.

I'll take a look at those suggested softwares also, probably should add something like that to my tool set.