I'm wanting to improve my lighting skills in poser. I know there are some good threads and tutorials here, but when I do a search there are so many threads I couldn't possibly read them all. Plus when I started to look at them, some were way too old. (p4) Some of the replies I clicked were dated more resently but were for old threads too. Can anyone point me to some good threads or tutorials that apply to poser 8, please? I know I need to learn about IDL and IBL. Is there other things I should know?

I know it may not be what you're asking for, but take a look at some actual studio lighting setups for photography studios or movie sets. Learning how light should look makes or breaks any image, especially with IDL since you can you can use quasi-diffuse and props that can simulate reflectors for semi-realistic lighting.

Baggins Bill has a light studio set up for P8. This would be perfect for what you're asking. There is a thread about it, here at rendo and the set up is http://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/free-stuff/tutorial-scenes

select this forum and user bagginsbill, then type keywords, e.g. IDL, IBL, HDRI, envdome et al.  bill did the P8SoftStudioLighting.pz3 scene to account for no renderGC in P8.

what type of lighting are you interested in? Are you looking for lighting that improves your realism? or are you looking for lighting that helps you to create different art styles?  There are so many types of light settings and positions that you can use with lighting to create different types of artistic looks.

The type of lighting that you use all depends on what you are trying to accomplish.  I guess it's similar to what JohnDoe said.  Take a look at some real world lighting techniques and some traditional art lighting concepts.

Or you can sign up for a free membership on my site Poser By Design and I can show you some simple techniques that go a very long way to improving your use of lighting on an artistic level. I think I have some Poser 8 lighting tutorial videos that are still available in the members area.  You can look at my renderosity gallery to see if my images have the lighting that you would be interested in learning.

Check your public library for books on "Theatre Lighting". They'll give you some good basic lighting concepts and tools.

I'm looking more for the how to in poser rather than the lighting theory. I go more for the realistic lights rather than unique artist stuff. I'll search for bagginsbill's stuff and goo from there. I ask for more help if i need it. Thanks all

Is there a poser glossary around some where? I'm running into phrases and abreviations that I don't know. I'd rather not ask each one here as 1. I don't want to become a pest; and 2. my time on the computer is sporatic right now and I want to be able to use my time as efficiently as possible.

Quote - Is there a poser glossary around some where?

I've started on one here. It's under the Trouble Shooting Poser section on the left it says Poser Dictionary   

IDL - indirect lighting (subset of global illumination without caustics)

IBL - image-based light (use HDRI for best results)

HDRI - high dynamic range image (32-bit hdr file)

envdome - correctly mapped light-emitting surface for use with equirectangular HDRI

renderGC - gamma correction calculations done as part of rendering process

EnvSphere not dome!!!!

what is GI? and what is a high dynamic range image? I gather it's a picture used in lighting, but what makes is any different than other images?

I thought there was a dome and a sphere along with a hemisphere. It the sphere the best one to use?

GI = global illumination.  some of them may provide other definitions, hence it's best to adhere to that given by the guy who wrote the firefly render engine used by poser, who said that IDL is part of GI.  advanced topic. we expect certain improvements as FFRender continues to be developed.

there are poser dome/hemisphere/sphere props in the poser default runtime, but bill's is mapped to take equirectangular panoramas and is distributed with certain advanced shader features.  the poser default "ball" props are mapped wrong IIRC.  don't use them.

HDRI is a 32-bit image, as mentioned above, hence its range of white to black contains much more lighting data than a typical 8-bit jpeg, where black is (00,00,00) and white is (FF,FF,FF).  e.g. 2^8 = 256 (FF + 01), whilst 2^32= FF FF FF FF + 01.

With Poser 8 you need to throw away anything you've learned from earlier versions of Poser, it's almost easier to wipe the hard drive from your brain and start fresh.

Use a Point light for a Sun, drive it anywhere from 100-130% and position it high in your scene. Use BB's EnvSphere and IDL for your render settings.

Spots act as you think spots should act in real life. You can accomplish something nice with just 2-3 spots. I use a Main, Rim and Fill for my Spots. Crank the Rim intensity to get a nice hot spot.

Always use IDL in your render settings and RayTrace shadows. (all of the above jmo)