This tutorial is about the surroundings of a Poser scene: the things that you don't see directly, but that make a big difference on what you see in the rendered image. It is about cameras, lightening, and render settings and how to configure them for realistic images.
The camera is the point of view to look at a scene. The tutorial describes the different types of cameras and how to work with them. This includes positioning a camera and setting the perspective as well as rarely used effects like depth of field and motion blur.
Lighting is one of the most important things in Poser because it affects almost everything in a scene. The tutorial describes the different types of light sources and their parameters. It explains how to set up shadows and special features like ambient occlusion and indirect light. This is followed by several examples for setting up lighting for different kinds of scenes: outdoor, indoor, and studio.
The render chapter explains the various features of the FireFly renderer. It describes how to set the different parameters for high quality in final renders or for speed in test renders.
The tutorial starts by sketching the very scheme of how Poser uses camera, lights, and the objects in the scene to render an image. It ends with a short discussion about technical and general limitations when creating realistic images.
Note: This tutorial is intended for both, beginners as well as experienced users. Because it is a tutorial on a particular topic, it assumes at least a basic understanding of Poser in general. It can be used as a tutorial for learning, but also as a reference guide to get information about a particular issue.
See editorial section for feature list and table of contents.