tip 1: think as a photographer. You're outside, on a clear daylight, want to shoot the porch and you need more light allover the place. What kinds of extra light do you need, and where do you place them.

tip 2: create an array of low intensity spotlights, flaps open, soft raytraced high quality shadows. Sometimes I use 5 (1 in the middle, 4 in the corners parented to the middle one for easy handing), sometimes I need 9 (in a 3x3 setup).

little secret: direct lights do not turn up in reflections but in specularity only, and you can turn the specularity channel OFF for that light in the Material Room.

tip 3: in portrait photography, a softbox should be at least as large as the (part of the) model you want to shoot, and should have a distance to the model of about the diagonal size of the box = say 150% the height or width.

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Usually I'm wrong. But to be effective and efficient, I don't need to be correct or accurate.

visit www.aRtBeeWeb.nl (works) or Missing Manuals (tutorials & reviews) - both need an update though