Alex, your final test looking good as well!! I luv the light and colors there, you got it! welcome in da club! however the balls have not textures and are exposed.. never use any white color on the surface.. change the diffuse color to 127 127 127 and plug in a Math node : simple color and there change the color you want to use on the object...

The IBL contrast affect the Ambient Occlusion in the scene too , for the perfect tone mapped Light probe the contrast at 1,0 is correct... more shadows? put the value UP, minder shadows ( AO) put the value DOWN .. simple is beautiful...

@ Operaguy, you should make test with poser, so we stay on the subject... :))
i don't know carrara settings so i dont know if this is fine.. the tricks here are only for use with Poser 7.. other softwares have different settings..

_________________________________________________________

"Surrender to what it is - Let go of what was - Have faith in what will be "