I'm getting there slowly, but still a way to go yet. Thought I'd share what I have so far. The texture uses the wonderful Lori texture as a base, it's so good it doesn't need a huge amount of tweaking. I've added some noise and veins, as well as some shading. This first attempt came out a little too muted for my taste

And this has probably gone a bit too far the other way and is a bit too garish, somewhere inbetween should do it :-) Once I'm happy, I'll do a tutorial.

Looks nice. What method are you using to get the effect? In the second image, her face is a little overexposed (see the tip of her nose).

The first image is really good although the eyes look dead. Maybe have her eyes with an up/down value of somewhere between -5 and -8. Poser figures can often look more realistic when their eyes are pointing in a certain direction. The eyewhite could have a brighter specular value as well. I agree that the second looks way overexposed. In addition, the resolution of the head and body are often different. The second image makes the body look more pixelated. The eyes look bloodshot and the lipstick doesn't match with the surrounding lip texture. I hope this was helpful and not too critical. You're doing an excellent job :)

I',m using layers of textures blended together (trying to simulate sub surface scattering) with some translucency. I'm having real problems with the eyes and the lips, getting them to match the light and tone of the rest of the face. The 2nd image was an attempt at simulating camera flash, where the temple and nose would reflect more of the flash. The lighting is then an attempt at radiosity. I'm getting there, albeit slowly.

It does look like the spec of your eyes isnt high enough, her eyes look very dry. I concour with BlueMarlin - could help if they eyes are in a certain direction.

At the risk of starting another arguement....unless you use a disfuse node into the translucency - any translucency you add is simply treated as ambient by the renderer. I assume you've read the tutorial at http://www.users.on.net/~pkinnane/RealSkinShaderTutorial.html? On the eye thing....her face will look more real if you get the skin, eye and teeth brightness all correct relative to each other. A good way to test your skin techniques is to shut her mouth and close her eyes - then the viewer is focusing on skin.

I've now had a look at that tutorial, looks a bit complex for 30+ lights. Here's the latest

Looking very good. Her lips don't quite look right - maybe use a more conventional skin for them? Also - looks like her skin is still too bright relative to her eyes. 30 lights is a lot! Do you need shadows on for all of them? If so, so render time a problem?