Best Skies

[glorybound]

I am looking for a good resource for high resolution skies for backplates.

[Pixelcon]

no idea how high res the paid content is but in terms of value for money, gobotree is a pretty incredible resource for matte resources.

http://www.gobotree.com/

[glorybound]

I remember seeing this one, but it has been awhile. Thanks. A lot of skies I find are dull and don't pop.

[flino2004]

Sometimes I use vraysky and in Photoshop y combine another sky texture using alpha as a mask

[glorybound]

Sometimes I use vraysky and in Photoshop y combine another sky texture using alpha as a mask

I'll try that, thanks

[Franx]

...A lot of skies I find are dull and don't pop.

Usually, that's exactly what I look for in my arch comps. I see a lot of archviz images featuring those super dramatic skies with puffy clouds, god rays, over-saturated colors and what not that totally overwhelm the architecture that they're supposed to subtly frame. My humble opinion, of course.

[Morne]

A lot of skies I find are dull and don't pop.

A bit of exposure with slight offset and gamma correction only on the sky can do wonders.
I would often also mask out sections and highlight certain areas.
It's rare that I use a sky "as is" but sometimes you can get lucky if you turn your hdri at just the right angle