I'm seeing a lot of really great renders out of Lightwave...and they seem to use what are called Area lights.  What would be the equivalent in Carrara 7 pro or what light in particular would be the Carrara equivalent?

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 Area lights function like Carrara's soft shadow lights when you increase the size of the light radius. (Light => Effects => Soft Shadows => Light Radius)

The difference is that Area Lights don't actually use soft shadow calculations - they make a single light behave more like  a miniature light array.  Area lights calculate faster than soft shadow lights but they don't provide the same level of nuance.  

Thanks Mark, I I'll try a spot light and make the changes you've suggested.