Here are some images I rendered in Radiance with High Dynamic Range Images (HDR).
Also known as image based rendering - using photographic information for lighting a scene, one takes bracketed photos of a mirrored ball in an environment. Merging them into one HDR, you can have a huge range of values.
Check out Paul Debevec's site and you'll find more than you need to know. He's the genius behind many software developments seen in recent 3D research.

I modelled it in Infini-D and exported a dxf. You can download it.

I'm still learning - these are some of my Works in Progress. The splotchy artifacts are from -ar and -ad ambiant resolution and ambiant divisions not being set correctly.

If anyone's interested, these are the setting for the Radiance render:

rpict -t 600 -e house.err -vf fisheye.vp -dp 4096 -ar 38 -ms 3.1 -ds .2 -dt .05 -dc .75 -dr 3 -sj 1 -st .01 -ab 4 -af house.amb -aa .08 -ad 1024 -as 512 -av 0.5 0.5 0.5 -lr 12 -lw .0005 -av .1 .1 .1 -ad 2048 -as 1024 -x 64 -y 64 -ps 1 house.oct > /dev/null
rpict -t 600 -e house.err -vf fisheye.vp -x 3072 -y 3072 -pa 0.000 -ps 3 -pt .04 -dp 4096 -ar 38 -ms 3.1 -ds .2 -dt .05 -dc .75 -dr 3 -sj 1 -st .01 -ab 4 -af house.amb -aa .08 -ad 1024 -as 512 -av 0.5 0.5 0.5 -lr 12 -lw .0005 -av .1 .1 .1 -ad 2048 -as 1024 house.oct > house_v4.unf
pfilt -1 -e 1 -m .25 -x /3 -y /3 house_v4.unf > house_v4.pic