In fact the nose is one of the most important things to make a face recogniceable, far more important than eyes. Ask any classical caricature artist. That's one main reason why Michelle Trachtenberg was rather easy to recreate in Polygons and Jessica Alba isn't.
Guys, let's found "DEFCON"
(DEFenders of Classical Original Noses Society)

*arcebus

Abbot of O.O.T.I.B.S.A.B.

(Order Of The Insane Boozing Sisters And Brothers)*

mwright

Didn't try FaceGen, but tried Faceshop Pro. Didn't find the result really satisfying.
V4 has a really wide range in which you can already make her look "kind of similar" to a living person, the rest (very much like in classical sculpture, where I come from) is very small details, it's something between caricature and 1:1 modelling, to pick out the details which make us recognize a face. As far as I know, this can't be automated beyond the sheer geometry. And maybe never will, because there is no scientific base about this yet (as far as I know). So it's left to artists. Fortunately.

*That's exactly what faceshop pro does.. makes a head morph and texture from photos

*At least it tries.

blacksmith3d.com is what I meant.  You can make your life easier if you try to get at least the basic shapes, like nose, mouth, headshape/profile, headshape/frontal and so so inside poser. Then export  the head (and, just in case you might need it later) the neck. Work on this "rough".
Take care not to change the seams - looks kinda nasty when re-imported to poser....
And the best  idea is to take V4.1, she's the most versatile lady in 3d - you might have seen what can be done with her.
While working on the geometry I try to have a many photos as possible. My minimum is profile, frontal, 3/4 frontal (preferably both sides of the face).
Whenever you did something you like, SAVE either the modelers file or export the OBJ.
The rest (as mentioned aboy) is practice.

*And, yes, you do look as dangerous as possible...
*That makes this old man happy....

Google Blacksmith and get the free demo there. Try this. I personally do not use photos brought into the 3D space, they are just lying: on the desk, on the floor, are sticked to the monitor, are hidden by the cat and so on.
Seriously - you cannot take the personality of somebody from just a profile and a frontal photo.
And: be prepared - you will need practice, practice, practice....
Have fun!

*"but I'd still say that a common television / magazine / print presence makes a software package worthy of a "professional" label"

*Well - being young and naive I would say that a "toy" is used to pass the time away, while a "tool" is something I use to get to a result. And many, many Poser results are just one thing: good.

(Depending on the user intention)

But I generally agree with you WalMart theory, Robert.

A simple trick to work with P7 (first release, no SPs) like with any other piece of software: if nothing else helps, RTFM*
The most important thing with P7P will be the ability to manage renderfarming.
Now compare. (I mean: the prices).

And there is no good reason for flawless software. Not before the first flawless human brain is rput on the market.

*Read The F....... Manual

Jim, do you need a modern one or an old style thing?

Pretty good machine - especially if you get to the new P7Pro (with any 64 bit WinOS). Seems to be a bit too expensive, though. Even over here (in expensive Germany) you would get it for  about 15-25% less. If you want to WORK with the stuff, think about two machine (i.e. two dualcore ones) which will provide you with both render power (under P7P farmed rendering) and the possibility to work at one machine while the other coughes under a render. Of course it wouldn't be legal to work with the same P7 license on two machines. I am using two P7 versions on two machines and a P6 on a smaller, older product  testing machine, which works pretty good for me. Even better since all the machine except a laptop are down in my cellar and I have only the monitors/keayboards up here. Now they can be as noisy as they want...