Hello everyone,

I just started working with Poser a few weeks ago.  I uploaded my first picture today (http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1402319) and would appreciate any comments or tips you could give me to improve the picture.  I'm still tring to figure out the lighting in Poser 7.  

This is a straight Poser 7 picture rendered with Firefly. 

This is really good for a first render - I couldn't even get the clothes to stay on let alone build an entire scene!

Just a question - did you set it to render shadows as I couldn't see any.

Left you a comment 

The trick to that is to not care about clothes.

Good instinct for lighting here, not sure if you used the infinite lights or aimed a spot, but it looks like a fire glowing nearby in the environment. And the eyes aimed at the camera and the expression looks like she's reacting to an intruder. The props laid out makes it look like it's part of a much richer environment, until you get to that flat backdrop. Much better to use no background at all than a flat one. The effect can be mitigated if you use a camera focal length 95mm or more, but that will also flatten elements in general, and I don't think that would've supported the depth you were trying to establish here.

I appreciate the comments.  With the lighting I was going for a sunset glow but I do see how it can be interpreted as a fire glow (wish I would've thought of it).  I do have shadows on but the 1st light is set high enough up that the shadows are not in the rendered area.  There is a 2nd light set in front of the women and set below foot level to counter the 1st light casting the women as blacked out silouette.  I believe I used aimed spot light for the 2nd light but I'm not sure about the 1st light off hand.  I just kept changing the light settings until I got a sorta warm glow.

I haven't messed with the default camera settings yet.  I don't have very many backdrops yet.  I had thought about moving the backdrop further out of finding some 3D trees to use instead.  I definetly rushed the background.

Originally the render are was set further back and much more of the scene was in view including the 'bad' guy the women is looking at.  I thought it didn't look right and you couldn't see her expression so I pulled the movie industry trick of tightening up the 'shot' to just the women and the chest in the foreground.  

With all these good comments I think I'll go back and tweak the picture and see if I can make it better.  I was disappointed by how her shield looks for one.  As for the clothes I worked on the scene with no clothes until I finally figured out what I was doing wrong, then I added them back. 
How do I make her skin look more 'real'?  I think that a more realistic skin texture may help as well.

Quote - I pulled the movie industry trick

Heh, should've known. Movie and photo experience gives you a good eye for staging and lighting scenes in Poser, and that explains why your first render was such good quality.

For realistic skin, some say photorealistic textures are key, but I've seen shaders and lighting combos that'll make no texture at all look photorealistic. imo expression trumps all; make the facial expression identifiable enough and the flow of body motion natural and it'll tell the story so believably enough that it won't matter whether it's 'real' or not, because it'll feel 'real' just the same.

I'm still very much a amateur with Poser, so I can't really comment on lighting, etc. My only comment refers to her right hand. She's HOLDING that sword, right ? Swords aren't all THAT heavy (despite what Hollywood might have you think) , but you still need to CLOSE your fingers around the hilt to hold them. :)

@DokEnkephalin - I don't work in the movie industry and have no movie making experience.  However, I have read director's comments and interviews where they talked about pulling in the shot of a scene closer as natural light fades to try and salavage a scene.   I'm actually just a IT guy who works currently as a network administrator.  I have messed with programming a bit but am not a programmer.

I can't believe I forgot to close the hand on the sword!  UGH!

FOr a first render you should be very very proud. Excellent job

Welcome back!!!!!

I'm not back.  I am just collecting/responding to  year old im's and offering a few thanks.

Thank you everyone for the kind words and encouragement.  I have started looking at all your galleries and I can see I have alot to learn!