For the life of me, i can't seem to grasp Poser's lighting system.  I have no problems with Vue, DS, Carrara, Bryce, and others.

I may very well be making it tougher than it actually is, but until I can finally grasp it, I'll hate it.

So, 2 requests. 

1)  Any good tutorials concerning lighting in Poser?

2)  Any good generic light sets for use in the meantime?  Mainly outdoor, and architectural renders.

John

It might not just be your lighting, but some bad shaders which do not respond correctly to whatever lights you are applying to your scene.  There has been vast improvements with each iteration of Poser, but, at the same time, certain features have been ignored or overlooked. 

Which particular version are you using and what are the major problems you are encountering with your lightsets?

I am using Poser Pro 2010.  My problem area is getting them aimed correctly.  At least in Vue and such i can insert a light, and move the light around in the scene.  I can't see that in Poser; though I'm sure it can be done.

 the lights are tricky compared to other software.  For  a start they are really hard to see - point lights are a light white double circle, and even when I make it huge I still have trouble finding it.  The vue lights are a little red 3d star.
Also the problem with translating and pulling things in poser without dials.  try and do it with a light and half the time it shifts to the ground or something and pulls that along instead.
Love esther

Try with a left, right, front or top camera. Zoom out until you see the lights.

For outdoor and architectural  use a skyglobe and indirect- or image-based lighting for diffuse illumination. Additionally you can use highlight-lights and one (seldom more) point or spotlights to get shadows.

If you're having trouble seeing the lighting indicator within your scene, you might want to try changing the background to darker color.

To position a light, use the pins on the lighting control interface by clicking on one and moving it around.  You can also use the parameter dials that appear when you select a light.

Also, every light in Poser has a Shadow Cam.  Shadow Cams allow more direct control of lights by letting you see through them, but I've found that moving them around is extremely un-intuitive. 

And I agree with Esther, lighting does not follow the logical convention in posing as characters do.  Point lights are the worst offenders, pinpointing them, to begin with, is very tedious and confusing.  I usually use a top camera to locate them, and then use combinations of different cameras to move them into their final positions.  Infinite lights only show a circle with light arrow directions, and can only be manipulated with the light controls illustrated in the previous post.

Thank you, i do appreciate your willingness to help!    I know where the controls are, my complaint is similar to estherau's.  Moving the lights around the scene doesn't work smoothly. 

And I dislike the globe method of moving distance lights.  I know, Bryce and Shade both do this, but I don't like it as much as Vue's. 

Usually, i just export the scene to Vue to render and set up lights there; however I am trying to see how Luxrender alpha looks and also Poseray for POVray.  Which means setting lighting up in Poser.

The Luxrender alpha is still a WIP, and the light problem is being currently addressed.  It will be interesting to see what solution the programmers will come up with.

And on the point that adp001 mentions, I do like to work in the 4-port view.  I can zoom in and out, but is there a quick way to zoom?  I know this is probably making you think I have just started with Poser, but I have to ask.  (Been using Poser since version 3.)

If I use the gizmos to zoom, it takes me 40 - 50 slides of the mouse to get where I need to be.  I am hoping there is a shortcut-key I am overlooking. 

Quote - If I use the gizmos to zoom, it takes me 40 - 50 slides of the mouse to get where I need to be.  I am hoping there is a shortcut-key I am overlooking.

What "gizmos" are you referring to?

There's a Scale button on the Camera Controls that will let you quickly zoom in/out of a selected camera's aim point.  Just click and drag left or right.

I was referring to the gizmos of the camera control.  The ones you press to rotate, move, etc.

I had never noticed the scaling tool before.  Thanks!  That does help the zooming!

 Consider getting th Terra Dome from RuntimeDNA - it yield IMO fantastic results for outdoor rendering. 

for indoor, download BagginsBill's free P8 Studio Lighting which works fine in PP2010 as well :)

Thanks.  I actually have terradome.  Just haven't used it much.  I'll look at BB's lighting.  Thanks for the heads up!

See this thread:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2734086&page=1#message_3688478

Take note of my post that I linked to before you go clicking links. RDNA broke their links when they changed servers.  So you have to change a bit of the address of the broken RNDA links to get the link to work.

Thank you!  That'll keep me out of trouble for a while!  Or get me in deeper.......

 One last suggestion. To find a point light is easy. Set its coordinates to x=0,y=0,z=0. You'll find it sitting on the floor at the center of the scene! Grab it and drag it where you want it, or use the x/y/z dials to maneuver it. Simplist way I've found.

BTW... note that you can take a spot light and use the "point at" function to make it track what it's supposed to be lighting. 

I use both of these techniques a LOT!

 Sounds like you've already got a ton of suggestions, some good. I may repeat the good ones.
Also sounds like you have quite a bit of experience lighting in other apps but I'll still mention a couple of obvious points for others who might be following this thread.

Point lights: Use the scale as much as 500 or more so that you can see it. You know it doesn't affect the light, it still comes from a point.

I name my lights something specific instead of light 5, light22, etc I'll name it point_Car, spot_Door
and then name its camera Shadow_ptCar or Shadow_spotDoor so that I'm not trying to remember which shadow cam is associated to which light.

When looking through the Shadow Camera for a light, obviously, don't move the camera, only the light. Rotation doesn't matter for a point light so you are free to look around through the Shadow Cam without disturbing your lighting.

"Point at" is great for beginning aim but eventually I usually find it to constricting and later turn it off. Or use a dummy object that is invisible and "point at" the dummy object. You can move that around for spots assuming you like the initial position.

And I like to work one light at a time so I'm clear the feedback is for the light I'm focusing.
I think lighting is one of the more fun/creative aspects so I hate to see people stressing over it.
Hope this helps.

You could also parent lights to a prop, like a ball for example, and then move the ball instead of trying to grasp a light. Load a ball prop, set the point/spot lights to x,y,z 0 (so they should be where the ball is in the centre of the scene) and parent them to the sphere. Then just turn the ball's visibility off for the render.
Infinite lights can't be parented unless you first change them to a spot/point light, parent them and then change them back to infinite. By parenting infinite lights to a sphere for example, you could rotate the sphere and the parented infinite lights will all rotate too. 

A way round the problem of seeing and positioning point lights is: load a ball and translate it to 0,0,0. Creat the point light and zero that then parent it to the ball. Move the ball and the point light goes with it. Delete the ball when positioned

There's a lighting and camera guide set at RDNA.

http://www.runtimedna.com/Advanced-Lights-and-Camera-Guides.html

cool..spent over an hour shoving lights in a temple for the last pic; finally found out you can move
lights with coordinates. IRL, I think Vickie would have sizzled...;) Learnin' lots, keep it up...;)

Not much I can add to this that hasn't already been touched upon, but don't forget that you can also change the display style of lights (Display>Element Style) in addition to scaling them, to something like smooth shaded to make them easier to spot visually.

 Well, there ya go. I had never considered changing the light element's display style. Great suggestion.

Since I had to rush and try it, I'll add:

It all depends on your lighting and background. At this moment my background is dark and the smooth shaded light was a bit too shaded. Silhouette mode was great as it made it stand out,
which it might not if the background was bright.

Thanks!