Hmm, I'm not understanding neither of you, really.

BB, you're saying turn it off, but you have images with reflections and I'm told you mainly use IDL, if that's true, can you explain the settings you have?  If I just set the "value" reflection and disconnect the color, the color turns off and both color and value turns into "?"

Believable3D, are you talking about the "Indirect Light Quality"?  That's what I'm guessing, since you said 17, though it's actually on 16.  In my experience, even on my 64bit quad core laptop, 40 would be a real killer and it would take ages to render anything, my main computer, 32 bit, dual core, would undoubtfully fail, though I'll give it a try.  Can't really remember, but maybe that happens if I set the "irradiance catching" higher, I'll give it a twirl.

Post work in PSP and/or PS might be my only option (one render with lights, one with IDL lights), but I'm hoping I don't have to do that... anyone?

...wolfie