yes, one would suggest an hdri on the sphere, e.g. bill's free linked file called "doge.hdr".  as you learn how to do these IDL renders, be of good cheer, as they are rumoured to have speeded it up a bit for the next release.

in addition, good IDL settings can be useful, and these can be done using the poser FFRender script in partners/dimension3d.  if the scene is rather bright, certain render settings or envsphere settings may need to be changed.