Lighting question/ Consultation

[KushKush]

Not sure if that's the right place to post.
I have a reference picture, taken from the cinematic trailer Witcher 3 by CD Project Red, Screenshot below.

I like the look of the shot in the screenshot, I tried to recreate it myself but it seems that I can't get the lighting right. I figured, that it's better to consult with professionals, I'm likely missing something due to lack of experience.
I use Dome hdri with the picture below(which is surprisingly similar to the reference picture), and one big plane light from above the point of interest. The result I'm getting in the render is boring uniform lighting, I suppose it's the dome hdri fault, which brings me to question, are they used hdri in the scene? Is dome lighting used in cinematic look lighting?
The screenshot does not seem to contain directional shadows, which makes me think it's one big light that comes from above. On the right side of the picture, where vegetation and water connect there are dark parts. What causes it? Is it composite darkening or actual lighting in the scene? People in the scene don't seem to produce the same amount of dark in the shadows.
All assets are taken from quixel megascans (except male models, tree and hdri).
Reference screenshot
Hdri
Overide material
RGB

[fixeighted]

I think the shot is just a graded straight shot but I might be wrong...hard to say for sure unless you spot it in a breakdown.
Anyway, interesting enough to attempt a quick hacky copy, so all this is straight from the vfb with some colour adjustments.
Not meant to be perfect but appears to reflect the things you pointed out.
I used an overcast cloudy sky rather than your pier image, so the trees are 3D which work better with the 2 fogs I added.

End conclusion is if you build out the landscape 'sort of' properly, get some similar shaders for the veg etc, then much can be left to the hdr and grade
you choose

[KushKush]

End conclusion is if you build out the landscape 'sort of' properly, get some similar shaders for the veg etc, then much can be left to the hdr and grade
you choose

Interesting, I thought the first and most important is to set up camera and lighting and only then shaders and scene setup. What do you think happens in the right bottom corner? Dark parts of the vegetation are the result of post? I'm looking for a way to blend 2d background instead of making actual 3d forest background, something that I want to practice with( Hopefully its not too much matte painting work).

[fixeighted]

Can you mark up where exactly you mean about the dark vegetation?..I'm not seeing it...

You can of course use a backplate... I just couldn't find one similar enough to the reference so was simpler using geometry...it'd blend pretty much the same...with fogs etc.

Re. what comes first...depends on what is there to begin with, so what any given shot demands.
model/shaders/lighting/camera...all important...and interlinked. Interesting lighting and a cool camera angle won't necessarily make a 'basic' shader on a not so good model look good
Arguably the way to go is model/shade/light/camera.

I'm sure others will have other suggestions that are production-proven also and may be helpful, once the week begins

[KushKush]

What is your opinion on dome light? If I understand correctly it's a way to illuminate everything equally with reflections from the hdri image. But if everything is illuminated equally, isn't that creating a boring flat feel to the image?

[fixeighted]

A dome light without an hdr will project light completely evenly from all points, so yeah, quite a flat result, whereas an hdr has different strengths of light coming from various parts of the image, so is great for realistic varied lighting.
Simple as that really...so on a film set you'd typically take a/lots of hdr photos and use those to accurately match both lighting and reflection with any cg stuff that is added later.
Of course you can choose to add further lights, to specifically pick out parts that further help to bed the cg into the shot, but a dome with a good quality hdr is the ideal starting point

[KushKush]

Thank you fixeighted.