I am looking at all these light packs here on renderosity and don't know what to buy.

More than anything, i am looking for a realistic effect that ends up looking something like this:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1395594

Just gorgeous!

I have Poser 5. I cannot afford to upgrade to a higher version of Poser right now. 
So it would have to be compatible with Poser 5.

I am aware that lighting has some to do with playing with the lighting too.

BUT to put it in a nutshell, what do I buy? Where do i get started with something like this if those are the long term effects I am looking for ?

I have emailed that artist, but have yet to get a reply on what lights they use.

Any ideas?

I appreciate it:-)

well, hie thee to Runtime Dna, and look in Poser Freebies. Traveler's got tons of free ones, and you can decide what works for you. They've been around at least since Poser 5...
just a thought.

Well, was hoping someone could tell me which kits produce those effects. ive spent a better part of half the year grabbing freebies that didnt get me anywhere close to that effect. Maybe someone might know what i need.

Why not send a site mail to the author and ask?  I find that's often the easiest way.

As just stated, I have done that.

That's simply a helluva lot of work. Try studying sub surface scattering. Lots here in archives

the items that make that image pop are...

hair casts realistic shadow and shadow has excellent blur at it's edge;
reflections in eyes;
relection on lips (glossy effect) and highlight on lip rim (separate light for that?);
subsurface scattering effect and shaders on skin;
generally high pixel samples and shadding rate all around.

So, many things go into the overall effect, not just a 'light set."

Are you comfortable with agressive render settings and agressive light map, bias and blur settings?

Bear in mind that the creator acknowleges some post work, but implies it is on the hair. If so, I'd say the most advanced work here is getting the eyes to look that liquid. Note she uses BlackEyes, which is what I use also.

::::: Opera :::::

Right up front I'll say I'm not very good at lighting, but:

I don't think you will be very happy in the log run if you rely on canned lights, because lighting is extremely organic and very complex.  A particular light set that you buy might look great for this particular character with that particular pose, but change the pose or change the texture or materials settings and you change everything, often drastically.  Portrait lighting is the "simplest" to get the hang of, but even then it isn't very simple.  It's particularly easy to abuse colored lighting (I'm guilty of that).

The gallery image you're pointing at does make heavy use of subsurface scattering (imo a tiny bit too much).  I think it's fairly likely it wasn't actually rendered in Poser, but rather set up in Poser and rendered in an application with a more powerful lighting engine like Cinema4d.  The lighting has the look of global radiosity to me, which Poser simply cannot do, although I understand it can be simulated in Poser.

Ok, so say Im looking to produce some effects RGUS uses in all of their renders. Yes, all. The whole body, whole pose looks real-ish. I asked and they said it was some old lighting kit they found in their runtime and have no idea where it came from.

As far as :

'agressive render settings and agressive light map, bias and blur settings' I have no ideas.

Guess I am trying to achieve a maximum look here too early or not sure where to start- but i know without the right lighting........

Now I really dont know where to start. I didnt mean i want to make all portraits. That would be a bit boring after a while. I was merely asking about the lighting. If there's more, I want to learn learn learn :-)

grrrrr :-)

mmm...i don't know pjz99, you can get this lighting in Poser. And fake SSS with face_off's tools. You can also get the highlights with a dedicated spotlight and a glossy shader on the lips. It is easy to get the reflection in BlackEyes.

I still say the most ambitions element is the moist eyes. I won't "accuse" the maker with doing that in postwork, but if not, I'd like to see the shader settings. It would have to be a something on the reflect node with raytrace turned on.

Propschick, if you start by learning how to place three lights around the head of the subject with standard portrait array, you'll be on your way. Then, just try to emulate one element at a time. For instance, learn how to get that great shadow cast by the hair across the face. You attack it through the settings on the light itself, the map, the bias and the blurr. You also have to set your firefly redner settings agressively, like pixel rate of 8 or above and a shading rate below 1.0

Once you figure out how to get shadows like that, move on to the other elements I listed above. It's worth the work to learn all this; you won't get it through any purchase of light sets.

::::: Opera :::::

I've been using just two or three lights for the past while.

1. An IBL for that even shadowing. You need to delete all lights, go to the Material room, add an IBL along with a *texture map for it. Choose yes for AO when asked.Turn the light way down.
2. A Point Light somewhere in front of the main character/s.
3. An Infinate or Spot light to make the shadows.

*look in the forum for advise for this, there has been some good recent tutorials on IBL.

You then need to play around for hours with different light intensities and slightlly different positions until your happy. Don't forget to render in Firefly and with Raytracing on.

For character texture maps I often use FaceOff, it comes with photorealistic texture maps and a python to add the skin shaders. Also has slide controls to adjust lip shine, skin tone, SS etc.

Basically it's trial and error. and lots of time spent playing around.

Good luck.

Again, take this with a grain of salt, because I'm not very good at lighting:
A big, crucial key in getting started with learning lighting:
Poser's default lights make no sense whatsoever.  By default, you have three Infinite lights - an Infinite light is basically like the Sun.  The light from Infinite lights does not spread, as it would from a light bulb in a lamp or light from a candle, it's "coherent".  While shadows will blur based on the shadow settings for a particular light, how much the light will spread and at what angle depends on the light type.

Three Infinite lights (Poser default) basically means you have three Suns.  While you can get away with this in very simple scenes with no backdrop and a pretty close-in composition like a head portrait, if your scene is complex at all, then many viewers will have problems with how the light looks - because it's very unnatural, we don't have three Suns.  For outdoor scenes, you probably want only one Infinite light, to simulate the sun.  For indoor scenes, you probably don't want any Infinite lights at all, except for pretty low-intensity "fill" lighting (e.g. trying to fake radiosity).

What I do for indoor scenes, and what a lot of people do, is some combination of one or more spotlights - usually one overhead at some angle, and often one oblique, lower spotlight to bring out some contrast on the model's features, and some kind of "fill" light (often Infinite at pretty low power) to keep shadowed spots from being completely black.  Many times my fill light is coming from a very low angle and somewhat behind the model, to simulate light bouncing off of the floor or from a backdrop.  Typically I'll turn off shadows for the fill light.  This is one example:
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1364153&member

Main light is a high power spot, nearly straight overhead, which casts the floor shadow; a second light is off to the viewer's right, and casts the shadow on the wall; and one fill light, very low power (perhaps a bit too low) almost parallel to the floor and straight on at the models.

Another example:
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1392994&member
The same basic approach here, although there is no backdrop; and an example of how organic it can be sometimes, that character's hair tends to put a heavy shadow on her face, so I had to add an extra middle power spot with a tight angle just big enough to light her face up a bit.  The extra spot is in a completely unintuitive position, and it's just a one-time workaround for the problem with that character and hair, it wouldn't be appropriate to do for every character.

V4
Custom color correction on V4 Hi-Res texture to make it paler
standard 3-light portrait setup
pixel samples = 10
min shading rate = .24
face_off skin shaders with displacement map settings and fake SSS
Default V4 eyes
Raytrace on for reflection in eyes

Only postwork was to remove two or three artifacts and slightly adjust the contrast and brightness.

Render time = 2.25 hrs

::::: Opera :::::

V4
Custom color correction on V4 Hi-Res texture to make it paler
IBL lighting and one spot light
pixel samples = 10
min shading rate = .24
face_off skin shaders with displacement map settings and fake SSS
Black Eyes
Raytrace on for reflection in eyes

Only postwork was to remove two or three artifacts and slightly adjust the contrast and brightness.

Obviously, from the two images above I prefer a 'grittier' realism than seen in the linked image at the top of this thread. I have no problem with the softer look, I just prefer this look of skin with a lot of imperfections and texture.

::::: Opera :::::

Actually I think the author uses quick SSS in 3DMax to render this image.

I'm quite sure it wasn't done in C4D or Poser. great image though, one of my favorites.

Looking at Propschick's gallery I suddenly realize I am trying to teach my grandmother to suck eggs (so to speak).  :blushing: