I do it all the time, and can confirm that it works, and works well.  It's particularly effective if you put something (smoke, rain, light beams etc) in front of the figure as well as behind it, and between figures if you've got more than one.  I used the technique here:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1739943

• Poser 7 figure, with a Vue 6 background and hand-painted Photoshop effects.

My self-build system - Vista 64 on a Kingston 240GB SSD, Asus P5Q Pro MB, Quad 6600 CPU, 8 Gb Geil Black Dragon Ram, CoolerMaster HAF932 full tower chassis, EVGA Geforce GTX 750Ti Superclocked 2 Gb, Coolermaster V8 CPU aircooler, Enermax 600W Modular PSU, 240Gb SSD, 2Tb HDD storage, 28" LCD monitor, and more red LEDs than a grown man really needs.....I built it in 2008 and can't afford a new one, yet.....!

My Software - Poser Pro 2012, Photoshop, Bryce 6 and Borderlands......"Catch a  r--i---d-----e-----!"