yes, i know it’s not very impressive but i just figured out how to use HDRI and i’m siked about it. before i used to have to set up complex enviroments so the raytracing looked right. i followed a tutorial to learn the how-to.
I don’t think you should add extra lights that cast such big shadows. HDRI lights the scene by itself unless you mean you used an HDRI skymap in Blender.
You should really use yafray for HDRI images.
well, i don’t know how to use yafray yet so i can’t use the HDRI in yafray. but, i do see what you mean about shadows. this was just just a test though so i don’t think i’ll follow up on this particular project.
Blender doesn’t actually support High Dynamic Range Images yet… so unfortunately my friend this is just Blender with a skymap 
However it does look cool!
As mentioned you need to use Yafray for HDRI support. Hopefully that’ll change eventually with the up-and-coming OpenEXR inclusion Look out for it!
Look great for a test.
I wish Yafray was more open and made easy for noobies.
OpenEXR in Blender itself!?!? Cool! 8)
Or maybe you mean the new OpenEXR feature in Yafray. That won’t be very interesting because it’s a kind of HDRI anyway…I think.
Well, if you have used Blender for the image then this is not really a HDRI lit Image. But working with HDRI’s and yafray is VERY easy.
Simply swith to Yafray in the render panel, go to the new Yafray GI tab, use Method: Full and set up the desired Quality (except for none, otherwise it won’t work).
I’d also recommend to use Cache to speed up your render. Leave the settings as they are, they shoudl work fine.
Next thing is to get a HDRI (maybe you already have one) and load it as a world texture, just like you did for your image. And don’t forget to click on Hori in the Map to Panel of the world texture.
That’s it, not even worth a tutorial 
my bad on saying it was HDRI. i looked into it and u guys are definitly correct. i’m looking forward to those updates!