Hello and welcome. 1) I don't buy stuff because it's new. I buy what I need. If I need a new outfit or setting or character for a particular image I'm working on...I buy it. This saves me money. Also, it allows me to spend more when I need to. 2) With Poser 5, I used the defaults. I did my final renders using the production setting. I do some postwork such as cropping and resizing in either PhotoShop or Paint Shop Pro. I'm still fairly new at this too so I have not gotten sophisticated with the render settings yet. 3) Tutorials are good but to be honest, experimentation is best. I've learned a ton by just playing around. If you have the time, do a search for geep here in the forum. geep's tutorials are pretty good. 4) Ask a lot of questions and do a lot of post reading. You can also learn a lot by reading other people's posts. Post your images in the gallery. I love to just browse the gallery. 5) I have a friend in Perth, Australia but I live in the United States. Again, welcome to Poser. Kristta