Raven: thanks.  I visited  http://digitalbabes2.com/ and downloaded the hair maps, plus a couple of others.  I haven't had the chance to try them out yet, when I do I'll let you know how they work out.

Here's where I stand as of now.  I followed the advice about resetting the spector value on the flag and pointing the spotlight to an invisible object placed between the light and my character's head.  The next thing I will try will be adding a second light.  However, I think, even without the extra light,  this result came out much better.

RNDA?  I'd like to visit it and check out the lights.  What does RNDA stand for...or what's the URL?

II appreciate all the other responses as well, and I'll try all the suggestions.  Normally the way I work around the problem is to set  the light at maximum and then use the Poser color palatte to make the background object darker.  Obviously with the white on a US flag this time I couldn't do that.

I'll try the spector suggestion first and see how that works, then the light angle suggestion.  Thanks!

I am not familiar with SR4. What is it?

Yes...FaceRoom is what I'm using, and I am wondering why on earth FaceRoom doesn't automatically create the body skins to match the new face. I would be using Corel PhotoPaint to alter the bitmap files. I have used PhotoPaint to create backdrops for my scenes and alter some downloads to make colors more suitable for my renders. I presume that I would need to save the image under a new filename, and am wondering what directory I would need to save to and how I could make sure make a bitmap file that I can access once I re-open Poser. Thanks for your help on this...

Opera: I am under the impression that a lot of Poser users only want the lighting to do erotic figure studies, and I was trying to emphasize that my ultimate goal for using Poser is different, hence the picture samples. However, your suggestion to begin experimenting with the lighting was not lost on me. I have copied all the suggestions from the thread into a single document and will systematically try them out this weekend when I have some time. I do appreciate what people have suggested here and will apply the ideas to lighting settings with single figures and items once I have an uninterrupted couple of hours. Once I create some successful renders, I will start adding and see where my systems limits are. A follow-up question I have to all this is pointing a spotlight. Is there any way to determine where a spotlight begins and ends prior to rendering? For example, if I move a figure away from the default position, is there a way to point lights at that figure and know for sure the lights are focused on the figure and not somewhere else? Edward -EC-

OK. I very much appreciate the input, because it gives me some specific things to try when I adjust the settings in my renders. I feel that lowering the complexity of the items in many of my pictures is not really an option, because the pictures are illustrations for stories I am writing. I think that the production renders will have to be used for character portraits like my first posting, and for my general illustrations I'll be stuck with draft-level renders. The picture posted earlier, for example, is of two college girls who just got busted for plagiarism and are waiting to talk to their professor. To give an idea of what I am trying to do with my work, I posted another picture with this message from another story I am working on, where my main character gets arrested for smoking pot. Once again, this is a render using Complex Global lighting (true globals) at draft resolution and the police officers are a Judy and a Don figure with clothing I got from Phil C. Edward -EC-

OK. Here is the info on the computer which I use to create the pictures. It is a HP Pavilion PC - Pentium 4 CPU 3.00GHz - 3.00 Ghz - 512 MB of RAM, so I don't think that is my problem. I think my problem is I haven't learned how to use lighting properly, that I'm missing something in terms of knowledge. When I say I can't get a decent render from Complex Global lighting, what I mean by that is the picture invariably is extremely dark, sometimes so dark you can't even see the figure. I use Complex Global lighting all the time at the draft level, simply because I always get a fairly decent picture with little effort. When I use the Poser default lighting and the system crashes, what I mean by that is the program simply stops, usually when the caption reads "adding objects" or "adding shadow for light ##" The program simply stops, although I now am wondering if I need to leave it going longer, given a comment from above about renders taking over an hour. Usually I cancel out of the action if the render goes on for more than 30 minutes and shows no sign of advancing. I am attaching another illustration done with Complex Global lighting at the draft setting. The figures are two Sp3 models, one with the "Kimmie" morph from Renderosity, and another from the "Ivey" morph, which I think I got from DAZ, if I'm not mistaken. The hallway was created from two Room Creator rooms put together. I am aware there is a lot wrong with the picture, starting with the figures' hands. I have not found any good sets of hand poses for Stephanie and the Vicky ones seem not to work that well. I have since changed the hall carpeting to light blue to make the figures stand out better. Edward -EC-

I am assuming "bunket size" is that scale you get when you adjust your production setting. I always tried moving it down, assuming that the smaller number meant fewer calculations, but what you're saying it that it is the opposite? The the smaller numbers actually are bigger? By the way, I'm not sure I made clear that the second picture I posted is one of my better ones made with complex global lighting. I never use complex global lighting for production quality renders because invariably the images are WAY too dark. Edward -EC-

I posted this image because I consider it by far the best of my production-quality renders, and it is one of the few I am satisfied with. I am satisfied because the character is posing for a professional portrait, but obviously the lighting would be inappropriate if I were doing an outdoor scene. The portrait is one of my lightest production-quality renders, which leaves me wondering, how on earth do people make production quality renders for outdoor scenes? I have discovered that if my composition has any more than two figures I cannot do a production quality render, period. Most of my images use the complex global lighting, which I gather is a "one-size-fits-all" for people like myself who just can't get lighting right. I am enclosing a typical render made with the "true globals" setting. The figures are modified Sp3 and M3, with a car I got from PoserWorld. I like the picture, except it has one major flaw, the characters don't have seatbelts. Edward -EC-

OK. I am attaching the file I consider my best production quality render. The figure is centered and I positioned the background objects around her. I used the default Poser lighting adjusted to spot and brightened by about 30%. Keep in mind I consider this my best render, since many of my others are too dark.

In case you are curious, the picture is the main character for a graphic novel I am working on. Most of the scenes are being done using the complex global lighting from DAZ, but if at all possible I would like to do some more production-quality renders with the default lighting.

Edward -EC-

Ian: Yes, I think that would be very useful. I would very much appreciate being able to try out those modules. I have some pillars from a room creator download, so if I have the walls, I think I'm good-to-go. What you are showing in the picture is sort of what I was trying to create. What I did was put a series of elongated boxes together to form a window and then exported it, then I tried to combine multiple windows with more modified boxes to make walls, but that's when the file became too big and crashed Poser. That experience left me with the impression that it is not in Poser where a person welds objects to export and then re-import into the program as props but some other program. Thanks for your help on this! Edward -EC- caligula20171

I took a look at the Baument site. The buildings there are sort of what I am looking for, except this is what Baument has to say about them: "Although useable, the models on this release are not textured or prepared for Poser. Some additional processing may be required for optimum performance in Poser. - These models come in to your rendering program untextured, the groups being in flat colors, ready for you to add your own textures." I tried downloading the 3DS files and using them. They are OK for far-off shots, but really not suitable for closer shots. What I have bought so far is the Courtyard scene and the DAZ Victorian street and country church. I thus have what I need for ordinary street scenes, but not for the Central Plaza scenes. I am hoping to find real Poser buildings. I don't mind paying for them, as long as they are detailed, textured decently, and created for direct use in Poser 5. I am a bit taken aback that I have seen tons of ruins, Sci-Fi scenes, temples...but not just ordinary 19th Century buildings for standard street scenes. I became so desperate that a month ago I tried creating my own, but that did not work out because the file size of my object became too big and crashed Poser. Perhaps that is what I will need to do, just make my own buildings if I can't find any. That leaves me with the question what program is used to create PP2 files out of a collection of welded geometric shapes. Any advice would be deeply appreciated. Edward -EC- caligula20171