Nance, If Poser was a real rendering program, then the black in the shadows would indeed be caused by poor setup of lights and camera. HOWEVER, Poser doesn't handle bounced lighting, radiosity, or natural lighting at all, and does a poor job of spotlighting. (And I realize that there are experts here who have written fine tutorials on proper lighting setup for Poser.) The real world is full of light. If I wanted to get into it, I could mention that the colors of the shadows are affected by the color of the light source, the atmosphere, and any nearby surfaces... as well as their natural surface properties. IE: we have a yellow sun, and so shadows on snow tend to be bluish purple, so what would they be if the sun was red? Until Poser 5 (which I sincerely hope has a better renderer), we'll have to muddle along, or bring our Poser people into Bryce and Lightwave. Faking bounced light by using the ambiant channel to add light to the object is a fake... but it does work. Carolly