yup. and learning stage lighting and classical compostion. I'll see if I can find some links for you soon as I have time...

One very common beginner's mistake is to centre the subject of the scene. In the example above, you have the model placed in the dead centre of the image. Try moving your central figure or subject to the left or right of the image. Play around to see what works best for you.

The example you've posted isn't big enough for me to be certain but it looks like she has crossed eyes. There is a good tutorial on eye posing here:
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/tutorial/index.php?tutorial_id=204

You will also want to play around with different lighting set ups. There is no "right" light set-up for every ocassion because different lights create different moods. I recommend going to RuntimeDNA and downloading some of their great free light sets. These are good to study and see what works and how different colours and positions can affect your scene.
http://www.runtimedna.com/mod/filelib/index.php?section_id=31

Actually you'll find many of the arts are tied together in some way.. composition crosses all bounds from sketching, to rendering, to photography.

Lighting and perspecitve are also excellent tools.. nice thing is, as you learn them, most carry from medium to medium.. lighting is just as important in an oil painting as it is in a render, or animation.

And it really IS a never ending learning process.

Gareee, I couldn't have put it better myself.

Quote - Would learning the basics of photography help in composing and rendering my scene? 

Absolutely would!
I don't have any links handy, but I can give you a few google searchwords, relating to photography. Look for how to's on: portrait photography, studio photography, studio lighting and composition. 
I try to treat my scenes as a studio portraits or sets, and the final render is just the final click on my camera. 
Lighting setup in EACH scenem even the outdoors one has a lot to do with lighting setup and composition. Knowing more about those can only enhance one's talent.

As for your render, there's hardly any separation between the figure and the background, that tends to confuse the eye a little bit, and the viewer tends to wander around the scene, rather then feeling drawn into it. In this particular scene the lighting and compositiopn would work together to make the figure pop out more.

The best way to learn, at least for me, is to see what images you LOVE.. not like, and see what they did, and try to duplicate those types of effects. It's far easier to emulate something you love the look of, then to just "make it up" in your own mind, without any training on what to look for.

Read Digital Lighting and Rendering (2nd edition) by Jeremy Birn (Author).  This is the best book on how to understand not only lighting, but the whole scene and what you are trying to create.  I have it next to my desk all the time.

to the o.p.: not necessary to be a photographer. instead, just go thru the gallery here until ya find what ya consider to be a good poser render, then ask the person who created the image for his/her settings. keep doing that until somebody gives an adequate response that allows ya to do what ya consider to be a good poser render. nobody asked this, but what one person considers to be a good poser render, another person may point out numerous flaws and errors in said image. hence, it's a problem of perception, and the degree to which perception deviates from reality in each person.

You need to be a good stage director. Or from another way of thinking....a great actor.

Every still image and every sculpture (our 3D work is actually sculpture), from ancient times until forever, begs the question.....

what just happened in the split second prior to this image....and what will happen the moment after it.

A still is a freeze frame of action.

tebop, perhaps you are detectng that the character's gesture with her finger is "affected" or forced...not natural, not having flowed from the moment prior to the shot. 

you might perhaps wish to turn IK on for that arm and pull the hand around a little, see if you can arrive at a position that seems "plausable." Turn limits on.

::::: Opera :::::

P.S. I also support the notion that the character shouldn't be dead center.

 3D art is closer to photography than it is to other traditional art mediums so anything you can learn from photography would be suitable for scene creation in Poser.

The other thing that a lot of people forget is that you can store nine camera positions in the Poser workspace (Camera Dots). This allows you to find the best POV you can, save it, and continue to look around. See what views the other cameras give you too. Some of the best POVs are found by accident :)

• Rick

My personal opinion is that the best way to learn is by looking.  I'd bet most of the greats spent alot of time observing.

I make a personal point to look through the galleries 1x per day.

For ideas - Have a look at dioramas,  the ones made with plastic models. 
Now imagine moving your head around the scene until you find an angle you like. 

Oh and lots of practice :)

No but knowing composition and lighting is always a big help. You can learn those in a photography class, or a theatre stage class or art class. Just depends. Wouldn't hurt to take a course in all three and get what you can out of each field.

Attached Link: Rule of thirds on Wikipedia

It wouldn't hurt, certainly. Your lighting looks pretty good to me, but it's always helpful (though not obligatory) to bear in mind the 'rule of thirds'.

I've taken the liberty of recomposing your image (with the grid superimposed). Also, a bit more differentiation between the subject and background wouldn't go amiss, unless that was the effect you had in mind.

Other photographic basics such as focal length, depth of focus and so on will make some features of using cameras in Poser (and almost every other 3D prog) more intelligible.

As othere have already said, there's a lot that crosses over between the different media, and you seem to have that awareness lurking in the back of your mind as you posted. I'll amplify a little. The way Poser works, and some of the jargon, is much more like photography than other art forms. You're setting up a scene, and when you render you record an image by a mechanical process. In that, Poser is a lot like setting up a photograph in a studio. But your Poser figure isn't contributing to the picture in the way a human model can. Posette can't move and pose as Twiggy can, she can't react to your instructions and add something from interpretation. Somehow, you have to balance the role of the model and the role of the photographer, because with Poser you do both. And, as far as the posing goes, I'm inclined to the less is more approach. I hold the opinion that the facial morphs in Poser figure are usually exaggerated when dialed up to 1. But that's a whole different issue.

It's not good enough to just look at picures. We all do that, all the time. What one has to to is learn to SEE. To See the parts that makes an impact..to see the things that dont..like (in photos) telephone poles growing out of peoples heads, etc. Obviously. in Poser we don't have the same sort of problem, but we have similar..stuff like characters feet not being 'quite' on the ground., shadows 'wrong'. That sort of thing Knowing something of Photograpy, etc will all help you to SEE your poser work..and to pick up on little mistakes that can make or break a render

I think your image is very nice!

Yes, learning technical Photographic Vocabulary would help you with Poser; but as far as Compasition is concerned Poser and Photography go hand in hand!

I believe the Lion's share of what Poser is all about has to do with the celebration of human form and nature.  

It's only follows to center your figure, what else would you be expecting to fit there?

There is something called "Rule of Thirds", which is only a guideline really, not a hard and fast rule that you must do.

[http://www.mintworks.net/Tutorials.htm

](http://www.mintworks.net/Tutorials.htm)

From my personal artistic perspective, the image looks good, however there is a lot of "dead space" in the image.  What the intention is of that dead space, seems to hold no meaning.  The image would look better cropped, than to have an expanse of black to one side, the other or both.

This holds true in photography as well as painting, or any art form.  I was taught by art teachers long ago, if there is area in an image that holds no visual purpose, its better to crop it out, it detracts, rather than adds, to your focal point.

You rarely see portrait photographers (wether from school, professional boudior, wedding photographers or magazine photographers) adding in "blank space".  If the picture IS a portrait, the "offset pose" thing people get on about doesnt work.  A portrait is just that, focused on a figure, directly.  Though you can have different angles and move the figure slightly to one side or the other...... waaaaaaay offset, at least to me, serves no purpose except to take up space.

To my own eyes, the figure and pose look great.  The only thing i would do, to make it more natural, is to have her lips parted slightly to relax the face a bit.