Maxxmodelz, this is coming so out of left field for many of us. I am in shock. This is the realism I have been aspiring to without achieving. Much of what you guys are saying is zooming over my head and the Poser manual glosses over it so lightly there is nothing to be gained there.

I switched exclusively to IDL long ago, using an environment sphere and lights from several packages I purchased, but always the results have been less than. And now you're telling me my problem was I should have been turning off the lights they sold me? Wow!

I gave what is discussed here a go:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=2338501

Probably a lot less than anyone else here is doing, but much better than anything I previously did.

Some questions:

The pic I did used the two one-sided planes as you did and I am assuming the "normals" side is the side I can see. So, just cranking up the ambient value makes it a light, huh? Wow! Anything else I need to do to those planes besides the slight coloring you mentioned?

I used a envirosphere.

Neither character came with sss so I used ezskin. I used the only the ezskin "make art" button, the highest value at the bottom of the window. Oh, and I turned up the "softness" in the skin from 2.5 to 3.5, though it may have not been enough.

Does the room you are refering too supplant the sphere?

I'm in the middle of doing another, this time with no planes, just cranking up the ambient value in the envsphere. It is in its 10th hour of render, so I overcranked something, but the results so far look good, no not as realistic as the one with your two planes.