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What application(s) are you using? Bryce can do some nice sunsets, and if you own the spherical mapper (or know how) you can bring those over to DAZ Studio in the form of a skydome (at least for 3DL, I'm not versed in iray.).
This is Daz Studio. And I'm rednering in Iray...at least for the other layers.
The best way would probably be to use a large high quality sunset HDRI product. That would provide both the sunset skydome and sunset lighting.
Here's a product in the store. I don't own it, so I can't comment on how well it works.
Any idea how that is used, eg. would you "apply" the shader (?) to the inside of a skydome model like Dreamlight's 3-D Canyon Extensions?
I'm intrigued by the "chrome" one. If I was rendering a 1950's car bumper I guess I would want it to be "chrome" but inside a sky dome??? What would be the trick with that I wonder.
If you are talking about the DimensionTheory product I linked to, the product page says it contains "12 Sunset HDRI Render Setting Presets". I think that means you just click a preset and it puts the HDRI into the Environment in Render Settings and that is all you need to do.
In Iray, you do NOT want to use a conventional 3Delight skydome prop, because it blocks all the light from reaching your scene. I question whether the DreamLight 3D Extensions Canyon product works in DS 4.8 or 4.9 at all, for any render engine. Long ago, the original Light Dome Pro stopped working, even in 3Delight. But I don't own it, so I can't say for sure.
I have three of the skies of Iradiance products and I love them. And yes, you click on the preset, voila it applies itself to the proper place. Only for Iray though.
Hmm, learn something every day. Thanks for explaining about the HDRI going into the Environment. Let me check on the Dreamlight canyon... wait... ok, it *seems* to load and work in 4.8... might be acting a bit funny; the screenshot of the "pearl" or little ball is something that I don't remember seeing before. I was able to load both the canyon extensions stuff into 4.8 (see render of the sky dome below) and also the "Back Alley". Back Alley is another scene that comes with a 3DL skydome, if I may call it that.
I wish I knew how this worked reliably. So you add the HDRI or HDMI or whatever it's called into the Environment setting of the Render Settings tab. I try that and load the map and set it to "Dome only" and "Draw Dome" on and all I get is a black screen when I render the still.
It sounds like you have a skydome prop loaded in your scene. Do you? You should not try to use a skydome prop with an Iray render. It blocks all of the light from the HDRI from reaching your scene, making a black render like you describe. The HDRI environment provides the "skydome" when you have Dome Only ( or Dome and Scene) and Draw Dome.
This thread might help.
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/66483/iray-environment-map-and-environment-intensity-sliders-what-s-the-difference/p1
I don't have a dome in the scene. Oddly, another product of HDRI images I recently bought apparently comes with a dome object...not sure why.
So without a dome, how do folks adjust their sky backgrounds when you can't see it in the scene? For instance, if you want the sun in a sky image placed in a certain spot. Just by trial and error?
Open the Aux Viewport and set it to Iray and you can see the sky in the dome. Use the Dome rotation slider and increase it by 30º increments at a time until you see a sky you like then fine tune the slider to set it to your requirements.
Thanks. That sure takes a lot of trial and error. I expected the cloud formations in the HDRI image to just pop into the background, but it is taking a lot of testing to get anything near acceptible. I'm using finite dome and experimenting with scale to hopefully put the horizon way back in the background.