I almost hate asking this question for fear of being roasted for not knowing what might be a most obvious answer, especially since I've been using poser since P4, but here goes...

is there an easy way to quickly look thru a poser light for precise aiming - ala Camera (Link Active Object ) found in Cinema4D or the equivalent in Vue? Fiddling with the camera controls to line up with the light to see exactly where's it's pointing just ain't doing it for me.

Thanks in advance!

You could select the light, open the Parameter Dial, and hit Ctrl+C; then select your camera, and hit Ctrl.V.  This would put your camera in the same position/angle as your light.

You can also make a light "Point At" an object.

use the shadowCams - there's one for each light (but they are numbered in some totally wierd and arbitrary way unfortunately.)  They are a camera "attached" to the light and show what it's pointing at etc

Yes, from any drop down Camera list select any of the "Shadow Cam Lite". These are cameras that look directly down the light rays.

FrankT is right. Use the shadow cam (if you can work out which one it is).

One way to find it is:

• Select your light and open up the properties panel for it.
• Select the Shadow Cam you think is the correct one (cycle through them til you find one that seems to match the light).
• Change the position of the light using the Properties panel. If the Cam moves, then you've found it:-)
  (It's a very good idea to save the scene before doing this, then reload the scene once you've worked out which is the correct cam...)

The view through the shadow cams can be rather strange, but it does give you a fair idea of what's going on.

Cheers,
Diolma

...and don't worry about silly questions. I don't know why Poser brings this out in people, but the only stupid question is the one that wasn't asked...;)

Quote - (if you can work out which one it is)

Another way to work out which shadow cam is associated with which light. Select any prop, from the menu bar select the 'Object' menu, select 'Change Parent'. You will be presented with a list of what is parented to what, including which shadow cams are parented to which lights.

Thanks so much all! To be honest, I always knew the shadow cams were there, but totally ignored them so now I have alot of learning/playing to do! :)

If you're not sure which shadow cam belongs to which light, use the Hierarchy Editor and have it sholw lights and cameras. The shadow cam of a light is parented to the light.

The shadow cams give you a strange perspective because of their very short focal length.

You could also try this trick with the Aux or Main camera. Zero all its Dolly and Orbit dials, make sure the scale is 100%, Memorize the camera (Alt+Ctrl+H). Parent the camera to the light, Restore the camera (Shift+Ctrl+H). This will place the camera slightly behind the light, and because the camera is parented to the light it will move with it. You can also do this with the Dolly Camera, but you might need to use a bit of DollyZ on it.

Not all that easy or quick, but it does get the job done.

P.S.
The idea posted earlier of copying the light and pasting to the camera won't work, because the translate and rotate channels are named differently in a camera.

As svdl said, you can use the Hierarchy Editor and have it show lights and cameras, but in P4 there is a bug, you HAVE to show the cameras first before you show the lights. That's why I suggested the parenting window, rather than the Hierarchy Editor. Perhaps they fixed this bug in later versions, I don't know.

Now that you've gotten it figured out, here's a couple of more ShadowCam Fun Facts to make it all screwy again.

-The ShadowCam can be translated & rotated from the light's origin and angle of view.  (so it is not necessarily always viewing your scene from the same angle as its parent light)

-The Shadow Cam placement is used to calculate the location of a scene's Cast Shadows, - -  not the location of the light's illumination pattern.  A subtle, but distinct difference in function.  This means an object could actually be illuminated from the front, but have shadows cast to the side.

-The effective viewing angle of a ShadowCam will vary along with the Angle Start/Angle Stop dials for its light.

Other than estimating what the light will see, the handiest thing to use the ShadowCams for, is to vary the softness of the edges on the cast shadows.   The narrower the ShadowCam's view of the scene, or the more pixels in the ShadowMap Size,  the sharper the shadows will be, and visa-versa.

Keep in mind that this shadow edge feathering can be controlled by manipulating the ShadowCam alone, and not varying the light itself.

So, in the real world, this would be like turning a fresnel into a softlight, without changing it's position or throw.   Pretty cool.

Impressive gathering of respondents btw....

Quote - Is there an easy way to quickly look thru a poser light for precise aiming - ala Camera (Link Active Object ) found in Cinema4D or the equivalent in Vue? > Quote -

I usually prefer to have a given spotlight point at something (Object -> Point At), e.g. a sphere primitive which is then hidden or a bodypart on a character e.g. one of the eyes. 

So, one could theoretically create a colored sphere (a different color for each light to make it easier to keep track), point the light at the sphere with the "Point At" function, and use that to control the light's aim with some precision?

Not only theoretically. You can do that indeed.

Quote - So, one could theoretically create a colored sphere (a different color for each light to make it easier to keep track), point the light at the sphere with the "Point At" function, and use that to control the light's aim with some precision?

Great responses and I thank all of you. I've actually went the route mentioned in the quote and as a workaround, it works quite well!

Altho Poser is still my Fave app, I've become spoiled with how easy other packages makes this seemingly basic task. Maybe Poser Pro or P8 will address this, IMHO,  aggravating shortcoming.