Hi ret2go, I agree with what diogenese19348 wrote. All good advice here are a few additional things that I hope will be equally informative. You mentioned Zero an item. There are several ways to do this. I usually use the drop down Main menu -> Edit -> Object (or Figure) -> Zero. Please notice that you then have a choice to zero the entire object or just selected parts of the object. And to be more complex you can select to zero the shape or pose or both. One thing I use this for often is with something like the hand of a figure that is posed not to my liking. I will select the hand and then select all of its children (fingers etc) Then I would click on the Zero Selected Items Pose.

I find lighting easier with IRAY too. If you are trying to position your lights, DAZ has a great feature that lets you use the lights as a camera. Use the Drop Down Tab to set the view to the light you are working on. You can then move the light as if it were a camera and point it where you want it set the spread angle to what you want. If it is the amount of light, you will need to modify the Intensity of the light if you are rendering in 3Delight or adjust the Luminous Flux (Lumens) if you are rendering in IRAY.

As far as lighting tutorials, I have found tutorials and guides for photography very helpful. Start with one or two lights and add them as you need them. You will be surprised how good results can come from two lights of different strength and how dramatic a single light can be.There are lots of Pinterest and other can be found with internet searches.

Rendering times vary with your scene, lights, computer hardware and the rendering engine, either IRAY or 3Delight. The simpler the scene (less mesh polygons to render) the quicker the render.

Jack238