Quote - I always default to using background pictures for aerial scenes, which is not ideal, but the results I get with most skydomes are not as good as I get with background pictures.

I use a fake curved background that is a plane.
"fake curved plane"?????
Well..., it is a big vertical rectangle with one face that has several tiny horizontal rectangles intersecting it from behind. How it works? It is still a plane, but adjusting the vertical position and the number of horizontal faces sharing the same edges the plane has the same normal as it was a curved cylinder.
This is very much better than a sky dome or background cylinder, it doesn't produce texture distortion, is easily scaled (after all is nothing more than a rectangle) and produce the same illumination as a curved background does. Changing the light angle you can have a highlight in the horizon or middle sky.
The only missing thing that would be great is a light that is able to illuminate only one object and you would have total control of the background illumination.
Take a look at my gallery.

Stupidity also evolves!