Mark, The trick is lots of lights. In the image you have above, I would start by putting a few medium intensity spots in your lit circle pointing up and out to "fake" the reflection of the light from the floor and fountain. Next take a few very low intensity spots and put them around the room to illuminate the back of the columns. Everything should have soft shadows. Another thing that sometimes helps is a couple of dark dark blue (almost black) distance lights with shadows turned off can help open up the shadow areas without the same washout you get from turning up the ambient light. You might want to use a medium intensity light to illuminate the birds. Place it close to the water of the fountain, it will look like reflection off the water. Good Luck, Eric Winemiller Digital Carvers Guild Freeware and commercial 3D extensions http://digitalcarversguild.com

Eric Winemiller
Digital Carvers Guild
Carrara and LightWave plug-ins