All the answers were great - thanks for helping me also. Anyone willing to share their favorite lighting combinations (presets, etc.) and camera tricks? "Be sure the model is properly oriented on the Y axis to the lights..." Does that mean the Y axis should be at zero? Can you explain this a little further? Lastly, has anyone read the new 3d lighting book; and is it worth purchasing? Thanks to all of you for sharing your knowledge. (I look so lame with that 'DELETE' next to my posts - please, I need to know how to get rid of it)

Hey BillyG, I think the 'DELETE' shows up only on your screen. Nobody else sees it. Since it's your messege, the 'DELETE' is there for you to delete your message if you wish... I think..

About the Y axis: No, this doesn't necessarily mean the Y axis should be at zero. What I meant was that after you determine the quality of lights that you find suitable in relation to the current camera position (main, dolly or auxilliary cameras seem to give the best results with long focal lengths), sometimes a very small turn around the Y axis will "sculpt" the model in a superior way. I am assuming from your question that you wanted to do portraits, mostly. Entire scenes would be dealt with differently. But for portraits of a full figure or head & shoulder shots, sometimes what I do is first use the figure as a "dummy" to find that magic spot where the combination of lights & camera angle produce the best possible feature definition or "sculpting." While you're doing the setup, it doesn't matter at that point how the figure is turned in relation to the camera. In Hollywood, they use "standins" when setting up cameras & lights & here the idea is the same. Because once I find the correct relationship between camera & lights, I then select "Body" for the figure & carefully turn the figure around on its Y axis until it is turned the way I want for the final image. Once you determine a camera/lights setup that you like, tell Poser to memorize the setup for future use using dots or save lights to Library.

One small detail I forgot: I have a couple of three-light setups that I prefer. I select one of those from the Library. The camera is free to move on the stage to wherever you like in relation to the lights, but there are "good" positions & positions that are terrible for the camera in relationship to your lights. Changing the camera angle relative to lights -- either tracking up or down, left or right or whatever, can drastically vary the quality of light that the camera sees. As someone else mentioned, the intensity of the light is critical because if it's not high enough, the final render will look muddy. On the other hand, if it's too high you'll have burned out areas on the light parts of your figure. For one example, one setup I like uses a fairly standard three-lights. As you're looking at the figure, one main strong light is front left up high, another strong light is front right either level or low, the third is back left of center positioned high up. If I dolly the camera so that it is diametrically opposite the two front lights & aim it at the figure, this produces the worst possible camera/lights angle, whereas the same light setup will produce an excellent rendering if I position the camera on the same side relative to the figure as the front side lights. There is a sweet spot on that front side that, like I said the camera sees best & any figure placed in front of it will then be beautifully sculpted by the lights, no matter how the figure is then spun around on its Y axis. It's a very simple process, I don't know if my brief explanation is clear. It's a lot easier to do than explain.

Still does not render as good as truespace does even with the propack.

True, & Poser has other problems still not addressed in the Pro version, but in fairness to CL & Poser, its main job is to do posing & character setup. Considering the very reasonable price of the software, it does a pretty good job. I think the designers of the software were well aware that professional quality rendering was not going to be attempted using only Poser & that at least some post-rendering work would be done by most users.