So, what do folks do for lampshades? I've got this set up with some basic translucent nodes, but it seems fairly dull. Also, what about light bulbs? I added a sphere prop and set the ambient value to 10 using a white color. 

I've attached the shader for the lampshade, and the outcome of the render but would love input on better shaders for either the "bulb" or the lampshade. 

And the shader node. I should add that the render above was with no other lights, and the settings are my default (which is the "Draft" mode for firefly, with indirect lighting turned on)

Edited to say: 

I lied. The settings for the render were "final". 

What version of Poser do you have? If you have Poser 9 or Pro 2012 you can use SSS for the shade :). That's what I would use.

Laurie

I have poser 7 and I use a point light inside the bulb with no shadows on the bulb. Start with very klow intensity on the light.

Does that give you the glow of a translucent lampshade? 

Laurie, I tried an SSS node (I have PP2012) but the results were wrong. The places where the model had "seams", such as stitching around the top and bottom of the shade glowed, and the main part of the shade appeared very solid. Of course, my Poser Material Foo is pretty weak, so I might have just been doing it wrong.

Nothing really to offer other than an observation about the example render, perhaps it would be more helpful (to all) if you set the arrangement into a setting with contrast (i.e. an interior or area with shadows or even against a gradient)... as it is any effects that would be demonstable by the render are lost in all of the blank, blinding white of the scene.

...Perhaps a transmap with different values to represent opacity of the shade, less opacity on the unpatterned areas for instance.

Well, this picture is nothing but a quick render that the pieces are doing something reasonable. I plan to save this as a single object in the library and load it into a scene with walls and a man and a woman sitting in front of a couch talking. It will be totally background stuff, that is only there as subtle details. 

     For the lampshade, I would prefer a mesh with thickness;  that is, a lampshade with both an inside surface and an outside surface.  Probably most will have only a single layer of polygons.  A shade with both sides allows for using SSS, which can give the shade that nice warm glow.

     For the lightbulb, I use a simple transparency falloff or maybe add a single edge blend node.  Set the ambient at 1 to 3;  avoid burn out which results in a flat white silhouette.  For this lamp, the mesh and IDL does most of the lighting, but I added a ring of four point lights at just 2% strength (inverse square attenuation) to allow for highlights (IDL emitters don't give specular effects).  The laptop uses both an unseen IDL emitter mesh and a specular spotlight (linear attenuation) to cast the Matrix text cascade on Andy's face.

     To get sufficient response from Firefly's IDL, I use an unseen (untick visible in camera and untick casts shadows) doppleganger for the bulb;  its ambient will be set to 30 or so.

     For a "glow" effect, I add meshes which are only vaguely visible, using two edge blend nodes daisy-chained for the bulbous shapes and using a simple gradient transmap for the cone shapes.

     Shown rendered with shade and the bare bulb:

.  .  .  .

...'nother glowy lantern, same technique was used for the Christmas tree lights (Noel tree by Pretty3D) and the hand lantern (Judibug's MyLantern).

.

seach, lampshade looks good IMVHO and leaf-chair is great!

Those are great pictures! I hadn't thought about creating my own lampshade. I'm just using one from DAZ, and it's a single poly thick. My final solution was to throw together a modified version of the texture and plug it into the translucency node. It isn't great, but considering this will just be an end table that you might see depending on the angle of the camera (I'm going to try to actually do a comic...lol. Like I'll ever finish anything more than a single picture before getting distracted by something else). 

I've been having an itch to scratch via wings, so maybe I'll give your suggestion of a "thick" shade a try. 

     Thank you, Miss Nancy and mamba-negra.

     The lamp, cafe' table, jade tea cup, and leafy recliner are freebies.  I need to get a file hosting account, but if anyone wants something now, I could send a zip via e-mail.

     The leafy recliner could use updating - rig for posing, relax the UVs by "unwrap" mapping it, and add SSS to the leaves (they have "thickness").  Hmm... on my to-do list.

     Mamba:  Give your lampshade just a little bit of thickness;  that will allow it to react to light using the SSS node.  I used the procedural weave node, and that gives it a noticeable "peek-through" effect.