HDRI Map positioning

[nv]

Hi guys,

I am a vray user since a couple of months. I've been through a lot of problems, cause I'm kind of self-taught. Trial and mistake is my way to learn how stuff functions. Till now I've barely used HDRI maps. Now it's the right time to learn how to position my panorama. Everything with the configuring of the dome light is quite familiar to me. I actually get to get the panoramas shown in my rendering, but they look weird. For example I got a beautiful 24k panorama from vizpeople and I cannot position it the way I want to. I just got a 2x2cm window to have a preview of the panorama. Is there any work-around known? This couldn't be the right way getting things to work. Here is a tutorial by Peter Guthrie about HDRI Skies. He, however, uses 3Ds Max, but there is no way that such Vray for Sketchup lacks such feature. Am I missing something?. http://www.peterguthrie.net/blog/2011/07/hdri-skies-faq/

 

Another question: can I somehow artificially move the panorama away. I mean I want to make it look like it's a bit further away. For example there is a beautiful view of some mountains, but the photographer has captured the image lying in the grass and there are some flowers in front of the lens. Unfortunately, those flowers would be the first thing to be seen out of the windows of my model and that'll be weird.

 

Thanks in advance for your comments and tips.