I think that you need to walk away from the computer and all that numerical talk of color temperature and photons... and go look outside at what real light and shadow do before further discussion of what is "realistic" or "organic". Light is colored, and shadows are colored. Duh! What we perceive as light and shadow is all an electromagnetic illusion. The color of light as perceived depends upon the color of the originating source (like our yellow sun), how much atmosphere it has bounced through (late in the day only longer waves penetrate), and other factors. The color of shadows depend upon the sky color and the light color as well as the object color. Anybody who has watched the ocean year-round understands the influence of sky color. When doing Poser characters, I never leave the defaults as black ambient, because that is only suitable for dead things, people in dungeons, or absolute space. I also don't leave the shadow set at 1.0 because here on earth, even inside a dog there wouldn't be absolute black. If you see gallery images where there is a "coal painting" effect, that is only because the ARTIST didn't bother to go in and change the dials. Not the program's fault. The artist's. I have given talks on the nature of light and color in the open air. There are also very good books on the topic. However, the best method is to walk outside, observe carefully, and then go back and try to duplicate the effect for yourself. Carolly