Departure (one distant light lighting)

There is only one distant light being used in this render. I change the shaders on the ship since it was originally flat black, to a highly reflective surface on the underside of the hull since the ship has many surfaces. The planet below which is a dome shaped model has the ambient surface max out in order to see it.. The bottom of the hull reflects the ambient surface of the planet works basically like it would in nature. This should work on some flatter surfaces too if the reflection is up and gloss is up to. Here is where you need to experiment to we if it will work or a need to get a different shader.

This is a 3delight render, I don't know how it would come out in iray or an hdri render. I am still learning about these type of render engines and how lighting works in these environments.

This will work well with a background picture too using one plane for backgound and another out of camera view horizontally or parallel to the ship surface that is under the ship (like creating and L shape and need to be careful by placing it where the reflection looks like it fit in the render, test renders should help in this.) and having the ambient turn very high on both planes but not so high that it washes out the background.