Well, I'm a fashion photographer by profession, and you can take it from me.....38mm sucks! The closest lens to human vision (in 35mm camera format), is 58mm. I mainly use 100mm in poser, but anything over 50mm is good for most things, and 80-100mm for head shots. Wide camera angles have their uses. They can be very dramatic...but not for head shots! Lights - Yep! Set the map size to 1024 and the Shadow dial to 0.100 for soft shadows. Don't use weird colored lights, unless you want a weird colored effect. I use a slightly warm pink light, similar to afternooon sunlight (as any photographer will tell you, the best light EVER!). This gives nice skin tones. Skin Color - Try setting the Ambient color of the skin to a warmer color. I use RGB 54/27/20 for good skin tones, but it depends on your monitor. Why the default black is still in use, beats me! It makes skin grey. Background color - No one has mentioned this and it's one of my pet hates. DON'T use the default vomity-green-grey background color! There are 16.7 million colors to choose from....pick another one! Other than that...you're already doing it. Ask questions! And read tutorials too. Just try not to get carried away with too many things at once. Poser is a long-term project and it's sometimes best to concentrate on a few aspects of it. If you want to do good renders, stick to improving your technique or maybe working with textures. Don't start reading tutes on the Grouping Tool or conforming clothes yet. mac