Okay I did the hollow sphere thingy, and mapped a dl'd image form the HDRI site (although it ended up upside down on the sphere, then I put 4 (I know, not enough)lights at 15 clustered at the top of the sphere, then put some stuff to look at on the ground..... Now, first, is this faked HDRI? Second what am I looking for, shadows, natural lighting, reflections? And, although I've read all the posts on this stuff I guess I'm not clear on a few things;

-I thought the scene could be lit by the just the image mapped on the sphere, without radial lights, yes, no?

-To light the scene by just the image what are the settings? (so far I've been unsucessful with this)

-Is a light dome necessary?

-Does the sky need to be disabled?

-Does the sphere need to be transparent?

-Is this just for reflective surfaces?

-I noticed the shadows were hard edged, I assume I change this in the light lab for all the lights used, yes?

And last I'm I even close to what it is supposed to look like?

Bryce Forum Coordinator....

Vision is the Art of seeing things invisible...