Blender AddOn -> How to build hdr-Files

If you want to try different hdr images there are a bunch of free ones here: Polyhaven HDRIs

I haven’t created any custom HDRIs but I’ve seen lots of tutorials on the topic. My impression is that a good HDRI requires quite a lot of work.

Is the reason for creating a custom HDRI to get lighting that matches a physical environment, or to create an environment texture to use as background, or both?