One tip I got from the many poser books I've been reading, that's one of the best ones so far is...

To avoid that "blank model" stare look...

Simply individually click on each eye, eg left eye first, then right eye, one at a time,  then use the drop down P7 menu and choose "point at", and then choose whichever camera you normally use... for example I use the pose camera...

that way, no matter what kind of animation or pose you're doing, the model's eyes will always be looking "at you", the camera.. if that's what you want...

That's the single best tip I found in all the books I read, the rest of it I'd already mostly figured out..

Anyone else have any non-obvious tips like that, that work great?

(another one is, I like using light presets, like the ones that came in the great "Voyager Nights" model package, and just click on them one at a time... it makes a huge difference in the way the model looks)..

thx all...

Point At, when used for eyes, can often give a crosseyed look if the camera is close.  An improvement is to make a simple prop with two separate parts and make one eye look at one, the other eye at the other.  Make the prop invisible before rendering.

using point at for the eyes is good if your camera is set up far enough from the figure, if its up close you need to dolly the camera back and use the zoom function (this is also important to avoid focal length distortions. if the camera is too close and you use the eyes point at function you will end up with a crosseyed look. another good use of the point at function is to create a dummy prop and use point at on spot lights that will make the spots point at the dummy prop this will make it far easier to focus them in the scene at a specific spot.

One of the best tips I got was how to make infinite lights stay in the same position, no matter how you move the camera around the figure.  Works great for checking out clothing fits and texture seams.  Just change your infinite light to a spotlight, use the "Point At" command to point the light at the camera, and then change the spotlight back to an infinite light.  

Alterntively, set the "Point at" value to around 0.8

"Anyone else have any non-obvious tips like that, that work great?"
I like making fairly "dense" scenes with  a lot of meshes and textures.  Used these tips on most of the renders in my gallery.
Couple of my favorite tips;
When making a big scene. It's helpful if you assemble it in smaller pieces - groups of figures, landscape, etc.  If there's a lot of figures, individual figures or small groups can be exported as meshes, and then imported as static props. - cuts 'WAY down on resources.  Then as the scene gets larger, save subsets of the scene as PZ3s.  Once your happy with all the individual components, just re-import (file->import) all the individual PZ3s into one large scene.  Then just double-check the lights haven't gone wonky (happens sometimes when importing PZ3s into PZ3s), save a master PZ3, and hit Render. 

If you're rendering an outdoor scene with reflective objects in there, make sure they actually have something to reflect.  A skydome is an easy prop to make for yourself from the Poser Ball, or download one of the free ones avalailable at RDNA.  Also, put something in front of your reflective object, but off camera.  Makes for a more interesting scene.

And speaking of skydomes...

Plug the textures or procedurals into the Ambient channel and set the colour to white, value to 1.  That way, you won't have to worry about lighting the dome itself.

You can also point the head: but you need to adjust the end joint parameter (x and y the same as the center and z a few inches in front of center) and reduce the value of the point at dial (a direct point of the head is not natural). You may want to adjust the x or y offcenter depending on the circumstances of the scene. 
This will trash conformed hair but you might be able to adjust it's JP's to match.

A real obvios seting.. when yo usetup up your scene, think WHAT your figure is doing, and WHERE they need to look at. If you were say, plunging a sword into a dragon, wold you be staring out into space, or looking at the sword tip?

Much of the "talent" of great renders are just simply thinking out the scene.. some people just don't use that step.

Think about:

WHERE is my scene taking place.. what's in the background that might be interesting?

What TIME is it, and what should the lighting be like?

WHERE does the main light come from?

Should SHADOWS be over certain things in my scene?

Where is the main focus I want in the scene? Is your EYE drawn to it? If NOT, then HOW to draw that main point's attention?

I usually use one main light, one edge light, an dthen as many spots (or colored spots) as I need for the scene. Many people never use spotlights or point lights, and they can really pop out the drama in a scene.

Thanks, everyone - I'm taking notes... these are some superb tips... much appreciated.

I use it (probably overuse it)..;) Works in 5 and up, actually in 4 too..;)

Only problem is that if you look at your gallery page, it looks like Hollywood Squares..;)

As a collary to that, if you have 2 figures in a scene, point each pair of eyes at the other...or whatever they should be looking at...;)

I find that if I set my camera's focal length to around 105mm (widely accepted as the 'standard; focal length for protrait photography in the 35mm world) then using 'point at' works very nicely and doesn't give me that cross-eyed look.