Either Peter's been at that cheap Tesco beer again, or I've downed too much Stolichnaya ;-) Well I've thought long and hard about this, and I still stand by what I said; that you can't see "pure black" shadows, and they don't exist! So here goes my attempt to convince you using two different tactics (SEE and EXIST) TACTIC 1 : You can't SEE a pure black shadow. We all know that in order for a shadow to be visible, there needs to be a source of light. Now, let's say the surface colour the shadow was cast upon, started at 50% grey. Picture this, and then change the colour to say 25% gray and the shadow will be darker. Now, take the sufrace colour down to just 1% grey, and you will have the darkest shadow possible under 'that' situation. Now, go all the way and reduce to 0% grey (black), and you'll SEE no pure black shadow. TACTIC 2 : Pure black shadows do not EXIST For a shadow to be pure black, it would need to be cast upon a pure black surface by a source of ligh emmitting NO light whatsoever! In reality, there's no such thing as a source of light that emmits NO light (it would be void as a light-source). To this end, the darkest shadow obtainable in the real world (and in PR) is from a light-source of minimum intensity cast upon a pure black surface ;-) The balances of PR are 'tuned to reality' (as close as can be). So rest assured, providing the material surfaces are created following the rules, PR will generate a shadow with accurate colour/intensity (I hope). Thanks to those who support this, and for the suggestions. I'm sorry I've had to lay it out to you like this, but there's far too lost. I'm being able to recover the odd file here and there, but the manual is a total no-go area of the disc. I'm going to try and build some scenes that will each demonstrate a particular rule and different scene abilities - that's the best way to go about it. If I do, I'll stick it on the Rendo MarketPlace and hopefully get something out of it that way. Don't give up on this, once you grasp it FULLY, you'll have a very big smile on your face! Len.

The wait can be horrific, but the outcome can be worse - pumeco 2006