Yes this is the way to go !!!

What you need are HDR Images (HDRI) they can be used in a variety of configurations here i have used light probes

here are 2 examples of HDRI being applied to a sphere which encompasses a scene, made in cinema 4d, skull is a lightwave hominid skull object i had laying around

I think you will agree the shading ( maybe not my textures !!) is very good, do rezise to full to get rid of the jaggies

http://wanbridge.net/stuff/skull1.jpg

http://www.wanbridge.net/stuff/skull2.jpg



Apart from the HDRI there are no light sources at all in these images

The textures are a simple marble tex with some 2d noise bump added

Basically a HDRI is a special type of image that can contain much more info than the stndard 256 image we are used to. colors can be fractionalised so for example where a usual color range in RGB is 0 0 0 to 255 255 255 HDRI could have say a red of 987.56

The extra information in these images allows us to use them as light sources themselves ( don't ask me how, do a Google on HDRI !!)

Now we combine the info generated from these images with a good 3D programs radiosity ( that is the ability of an object to light other objects by bouncing light, so for example a light around a corner will light an object not in it's view because the light can be radiated off the walls)

The benefit of all this is that you get very realistic lighting without the headache of having to set up multiple light sources and all the associated configuration