Is there a way to temporarily give lights in Poser a shaded color so that you can see them better when you try to position them? Sometimes I have to zoom way out to see the red outline and it's tiny so I don't always see it. But then as I move the light closer to my scene and zoom in so that I can start to position it, the light seems to disappear. I can't find it anymore if I zoom in or out.

Scale the light in its parameters and change its display mode.

Select the light: Display/Object Style/ whichever you prefer

Or

Select the light and change its display with the element display style globes (window/preview styles)

Thanks. I had the light selected and I tried changing the Object style but I really didn't see the light change.

But I just noticed that the biggest reason I am losing the light is because the outline only seems to stay on the light for a short time after you more your mouse away. I would have thought that the red outline would remain visible as long as the object (light) is visible.So when I zoom in to better position the light, the outline isn't visible and I don't know where it went. It looks like I need to move my mouse around until I find it.

Oddly, when the light was far away I could see the outline. That's how I knew where the lights were to start adjusting them.

Maybe this behavior happened because I deleted all the preloaded lights (because I couldn't adjust them to get decent lighting.) So maybe it was too dark for me to see the lights. I was able to add lights one by one and position them so I finally got a decent scene.

Deleting the preloaded lights have no effect on subsequent lights. I have had better luck using the orthographic cameras (Top, Right, Left, etc) to position those types of lights. But you are correct, manipulation is very finicky when you try to manually position them into place.

I just checked the orthographic cameras with an enlarged point light and the outline stays visible and in place when selecting other objects. As I mentioned above, use the other cameras to better position your lights and then lock them into place.

I find that turning on the Direct Manipulation gizmo can help.

Never thought of that. It does make it convenient to spot and manage. Thanks for the tip.

You could also just tell the light what to point at, assuming it's a directional light, spots and area.

The problem with the pointing feature on such a light, if you have inverse square activated on the light you will have illumination falloff with distance; a shortfall if you want realistic lighting in your scene. In addition, you may want supplemental lighting from other sources (lamps, overhead fixtures, etc.) throughout the stage.

Thanks for the tips! I'll try them.

MeInOhio posted at 10:51AM Mon, 27 April 2020 - #4387489

Thanks for the tips! I'll try them.

Additionally I suggest tinting the lights in strong opposing colors temporarily, so you can better judge which light does what in the scene. I do this all the time when setting up lighting with specific needs in mind. Later for final renders, switch the colors back to whatever serves you well.

Tick the 'show lights' checkbox in the Hierarchy Editor. Then click the little eye icon next to the relevant light to turn it visible if its not. This can also be toggled within the properties of the light on the parameters palette, by ticking the visible box.

Also don't forget that lights have similar properties like other objects have. You can parent an object (like a simple primitive from the library) underneath a light, on the ground. Then it doesn't disturb, if the light is high up on the ceiling and out of camera view, you can see the position always through the referring object. Also you can parent a light to an object. Assume you place a point light inside a car, to mimick the interior light of the car. Then parent it to the car. If you later decide to relocate the car because a different parking in your scene seems better, just move the car there, the interior light follows. See: Object:Change parent menu. To disengage any parenting, chose "UNIVERSE" as the new parent. You can also parent a spot light to your camera. This way you have a fixed spotlight like a flash light on a real camera, it always follows any movement you make in the scene, always lighting what is right in front of your camera.