I guess the easiest way to help those having trouble lighting their scenes in PP-2012 would simply be to share the lights I'm using.

So attached is a zip (remove .txt from the file and unzip, then place in your lights folder) containing four lightsets I pretty much use for everything.

 

For those with a low end GC (Or those who simply prefer the non-hardware shader preview look), there are two lightsets called GOOD PREVIEW:

These contain EIGHT preview lights which DO NOT render and ONE or TWO lights which do.

Those PREVIEW LIGHTS are simply there to create a nice OpenGL preview IF HARDWARE SHADING IS DISABLED in your PREVIEW SETTINGS.

The IDL light contains only ONE SUN and NEEDS IDL AND AN ENVIRONMENT to properly work.

The NON-IDL light contains an additional white IBL for ambient and should NOT BE USED with IDL.

 

 

The NO PREVIEW lights are meant for those with high end graphic cards who use FULL HARDWARE SHADING for their OpenGL preview.

They DO NOT contain preview lights, just the render lights. (But these are OpenGL enabled, so you can still see what you're doing)

They come as IDL (Only one sun) and NON-IDL (Sun + white IBL).

 

 

Only the SUN light gives shadows on all four sets.

Shadows are by default NOT BLURRED. You can easily set this up yourself.    I recommend 1.4 to 2.0.

I use these lights for almost anything, but if you work in a tight, completely enclosed space, you need to replace the SUN with a similar point light that is located closer to your scene, as walls will block the default sun.

ALL LIGHTS NEED GAMMA CORRECTION ENABLED !

 

While these lights work very well for most "daylight" renders, you can and should of course modify them any way you like.

Tint the sun, dim it down, add additional lights, etc.