[rendermonkey]

Hi got Maxwell render suite and loving it. I am a beginner so please help:

External render of my house on sunny day with nice hdri blue sky background

I like the sharp shadows you get with the physical sky but i need to use a hdri image based background which doesnt give the sharp edge cast shadows
Can anyone suggest how to use HDRI image based background and still get the sharp cast shadows?

Many thanks

[JamesColeman]

Use an HDRI that has a sun bright enough to cast hard shadows (there are such HDRIs out there and Maxwell is capable of it, I've seen it and done it many times). Or open the HDRI in Photoshop or similar and add a small circle with a very high exposure white colour in the same place as the sun.