With Poser you can have some experience of succes really fast.
Just load a Figure and start to try out things.

As long as you dont delete your runtime, there is not much that you could mess up.
Following the tutorial manual (that comes with Poser) step by step is maybe not the best thing.
IMHO it's always better to try out how things work by playing around with them. It's the fastest way to learn something new and memorize it.
Check out the light settings after loading a figure. The basic light setup is somewhat similar to what photographers use.

You can get a feeling of the way light colors are treated in preview and render.
Then testing the different light types and what they do.
After this you maybe want to check the basic material settings (but in advanced mode) to see how colors will be treated there.

And if you are somewhat familiar with the dials and their meaning you may want to look at the tutorials.
Like in photography, the lighting is very important for a Poser picture to look right.

Have fun! :)