Yeah, basically if you're going for true photorealism you need a
load of lights, arranged pretty carefully around your scene. If you
want the painterly approach you can make do with very few lights,
maybe even just one, and let textures and post do the rest. Another
problem with photorealism is that you'd have to be godlike with
your postwork in order for it not to show! Texture mapping is key,
too. I think the mistake that is made a lot is to go mad with bump
maps, when if you look around you there are very few objects that
have great grooves and crevices in them!! (Apart from my ex's
face). Anyway, good luck! I'll go back to watching my monthly
challenge pic build up by one line of pixels every 10 minutes!! :