Quote - Thanks, RobynsVeil. Changing to the settings you recommend definitely speeded up!  Really appreciate the tips.

However, I have two questions:

1. With the settings I have for the sole light in the scene (as shown in my screenshot above) why does it render as daylight and not night?

2. And, how do I turn off Subsurface Scattering? For a lot of the skin materials I clicked on Add Subsurface Scattering and don't see how I can remove it.

If you have Poser 8, subsurface scattering is - at best - faked in BB's pr3 shader that comes with VSS - not a bad fake, mind you.

Poser 9/PP2012 has a tick box in the render settings for subsurface scattering. When you get a chance: upgrade. If you can afford it, get PP2012. It is so worth it!

Monterey/Mint21.x/Win10 - Blender3.x - PP11.3(cm) - Musescore3.6.2

Wir sind gewohnt, daß die Menschen verhöhnen was sie nicht verstehen
[it is clear that humans have contempt for that which they do not understand] 

Metaphor of Chooks