For background and illumination.

So I figured out this is the best setting for me to illuminate my Poser 12 scene as well as to get an immersive background environment. See my screen capture below for the details. (I am using a third-party 360 HDRI image). There is no light in this scene. The illumination comes from the HDRI.

Note: If the HDR file is clipped, it means it won't serve well as an illuminating source. You will have to check your HDR files and fix them - that involves very technical knowledge and is not within my scope of experties to advise. I only know that clipped HDRIs don't illuminate scenes properly.

There is a non-technical fix to fake an unclipped HDRI - see https://sites.google.com/view/grumpyoldfartssite/my-3d-cg-experiments/my-cg-experiments-5#h.wm6l4iy44lyi for my discussion of SlickSHWart's method.

I have also posted this image at my own website on Google Sites:

Link

In my opening post, I have a URL to my own website discussing SlickSWHart's non-technical fix for getting clipped HDRIs to illuminate scenes. This is a "cheat" method or a "faking it" method to squeeze out better illuminating properties from a clipped HDRI.

The clickable link is this

Some of the settings are very small and hard to read in my image.

I scaled the Morphing Ball to 7000 per cent. To get the hemisphere base the flattest, dial it to 0.468. Raise the entire prop +0.585 in the Y direction.

You probably don't need the mapping node in this case, but it is my habit to include a mapping node when my node set up involves equirectangular images.

You also may not need the HSV node if your HDRI is technically perfect. However, there are some HDRIs which are not managed well (too technical to explain) and need bumping up in the Value and Factor options of the HSV node.

What are the advantages of doing it this way vs putting the HDRI in the background nodes? Does it preview better?

Normal HDRI projection in the background node is not controlled with camera rotation, it is fixed and will not change. With this process, the scene will change according to its placement on the hemisphere as you change the camera angle.

Ah, ok, that is helpful. I have only just started playing with HDRIs.

Erratum - In my opening post, I said "There is a non-technical fix to fake an unclipped HDRI" I meant "a clipped HDRI". Sorry for the confusion.

Have you worked out the shadow catching yet?