hi i am new to this and can not figure out how to make my figure more clear when against a imported background. i can animate and it renders ok except clarity of figure. mark

I do a lot of backgrounds, and what helps me is to look at the background first. Where (what direction) is the light coming from? What color is it, and how strong is it?

Try to match in Poser the lighting direction, color, and intensity of the background picture in your render. Having a brighly-lit person in a dimly-lit surroundings (except maybe for rock concerts..;) is a dead giveaway.

Another thing is shadows, my failing thus far. I cheat a lot by cutting folks off at the knees, but if I can make a good floor prop (still workin' on it..;), that should do it. If your lighting direction falls on props or characters that are in the picture, and there's no shadow, it's either going to give pause (unless you're rendering a vampire..or was that reflections that don't show up?..;)

One last thing- scale. You can push characters way forward or back with the camera controls. If you're doing a city scene, you can get people (apparently) 100 yards away, or more. Seeing a picture, the eye looks for the familiar first, then uses that as a measure to guage the rest of the pic. Quick tip- the farther away they are, the less detail you need. Dork is not too bad-looking from 50 yards or so back..;)

hope that helps. Doc Geep has a background tutorial (using Terragen, which is a free terrain generator, at Planetsides' site) as he does for most everything else Poser-related..and thanks to new Poser technology, he's even looking younger!