There is something that bothers me with a few murchants. Not that your product that isn't top of the line, but because there are a few that make a black blackground with poor lighting on the subject. Some is so poor of lighting that I can't make out what the product looks like at all. I think Black background are a very excellent way to diplay your product. I can only speek for my self though. If I can't see the product, I won't buy. And I would hate to see a tallented merchant that put in the time that it takes to loose a sale that I or someone else might buy.

Here is a simple and easy way to get the lighting the way to show off your model.  You have 30 frames to work with. Frame one. Get your product what looks good in your preview mode and render it. It most probably won't be as good as you like. THEN: move to frame 2 Tweek your lighting from there on. Starting in Frame 1. use Constant keyframe in your interpolation Controls for every frame or you can use LInear. There won't be any movement that carrys over. Then you can go back over the 30 frames if that what it takes. but the good news is you don't have to save anything or put anything in your folders. All your lightings that you like are there on each key. 

I imagine that everyone that makes Poser models has at least Poser 6 and some Poser 7. What's good with these versions is you have ten examples of your rendered scenes all numbered. Delete the ones you don't like and slide the others over till you get what you are after. This doesn't only apply to merchants, this can apply to anyone wanting to make a good render. I do mostly animations, but I still use this system to get the lighting from scratch the way I want, then Im set. Hopes this helps.

That's good advice.

One thing you should check if you are having trouble seeing images because they are showing up too dark is to calibrate your monitor.   The easiest way is to use Adobe Gamma if you have Photoshop.  You can access that through your "Control Panel" by clicking "Adobe Gamma".  Otherwise you can do it manually by using this link:   http://epaperpress.com/monitorcal/

It made all the difference when I did it.

I appreciate the information about the monitor, but my Monitor is fine, I know how to adjust it. My only reason for posting this message is almost every Image with a black background come out great. There are only a few that are too dark. yes I can go through the settings and make them more visable, but then everything else is out of wak in doing so. That should be there responsibility, not mine if they want to sell. 

As I said, I know that there is a lot of time and effort to making these items. I just want to give them a heads up with something that is so simple to correct compaired to the work they put into making there product. If they have the information. When there is a product that has no detail whatso ever. My impression is they are trying to hide some flaw.  

I use Photoshop all the time. I just lightened about 150 photos that had nothing to do with products but correcting the lighting on a film someone else has made.

The work they do is time I don't have to work on in modeling, texturing or what ever that is involved, unless it's simple stuff.  I can just find a merchant that specializes in what is needed and look to buy. Or If I need something that is not out there, if it's that important, I can just have a merchant make something to my specs. I just hope that those few merchants don't  think that lighing is important. In a number of cases great lighting can make a sale, It stimulates the mind of the posibilities of that product.

Something else to note is that there are differences in the default monitor gamma between Mac & PC. Something that looks OK on one system may appear too dark (or washed out) when viewed on the other system.

All I know is I see Thousands and Thousands of Renders from different companys. There is only just a very few that I don't want to call out, because I don't mean no disrespect to them. I see great detail on all those images. 

But I'm just curious, because the subject of a couple of the images in question, I was interested in I didn't buy because I was conserned about the quality of the product that I couldn't see. Am I the only one that sees a couple of merchants that have no detail on what might be a great product caused by poor lighting? 

My biggest intent was to get these merchants to have a better render of what might be a great product lit better. A hard situation to get right is a black obect, animal, or person on a white or, black background. That is one of the hardest things to light properly to show detail. but reguardless, It should be done, and it can be done.

Maybe my best solution is to talk directly to the merchant in question about it. I just thought this might be of help for anyone who it might be one of those merchants, and also for anyone who might be thinking on being a merchant in the future. Lighting is Very important!

I think many opt for the black background because it's less distracting and puts the focus on the actual image rather than the background itself. I'm not a merchant and I don't know what is inside their heads when they create their promo images, but that's a theory.

A Black or White Backgrounds only relationship to lighting is in the way you light  your subject to bring out the detail you that is needed.  An Illustration or Painting is a different animal all together. They  let your imagination fill in the detail that sometimes disapears into its dark or light background with the purpose of bringing out drama, or mystery.  

In selling a product, Black or white backgrounds are also an excellent way to show off your products. And if you have 3 or 4 Illustrations as examples, At least two should give you good detail of the subject. There is nothing wrong with bringing out drama or supence with some detail disapearing into the background with a few examples, as long as you can see some detail of your other examples.

 To clairify one thing, It's not that you use a black or a white as a background. It is that you show good detail of your subject in doing so, somewhere with your examples. Almost all the merchants that I see do a great job in doing so. Just look how they show off their product with there backgrounds and learn how to sell your product with good lighting.