Thank you! I wish I had your skills. You do some fantastic work.

Oh, thanks, guess I can learn from your lighting, too, however I binned Poser about 3 weeks after buying it and I don't recall if lighting was similar after Iray. But the inspriation from your images remains.

Your work is a major reason why I'm considering using my limited resources to purchase DAZ...

Oh. It's free???? I just always assumed it was pricy. I'm installing it now.

Hmm. My lighting is pretty much totally derived from my years as a studio photographer, and should be applicable in DAZ too, I'd assume. I shall play around with lighting when I get DAZ installed and get somewhat familiar with it, enough to "play around".

Just a gentle word of warning. DAZ indeed is for free, but to get anywhere you still need to invest.... uhummmmm.... some!! money.

There are freebies, but mostly for older generations (G9 being the latest, but not really downward compatible). Also, there ist an eternal "sale" going on with "bargains" literally every day (if you are patient, you can buy most of the stuff at a discounted price.)

I found the membership a bargain (oh, yes, it's on sale just now, too), because you get 2 vouchers for different occasions both worth 6 USD each month, which is more than what you pay for (plus some perks in pricing generally).

Renderhub offers some really good value for money stuff, but sometimes the quality is substandard. Renderosity just lost about 15 DAZ vendors to Daz, and generally I have the feeling they are more concerned about AI and Poser stuff recently. Still, in the freebie section there is some useful content: SirMaverick's tattoos (MANY!) to name just one.

Lighting: Some HDRIs (Dimension Theory) and the Ghostlights by KinderedArt are really helpful, also Dreamlight's WOW lights (this is one of the vendors you don't want to buy stuff from when it comes out, sooner of later it'll end up with a massive sale discount).

If you want more recommendations (scripts, hair, figures), just ask.

I was suspecting that the cost was in the have-to-have addons. Thank you. That was a Lot Of Information.

Does it come with basic lighting? Point? Spot light? Anything like that? I'm quite happy if I can recreate basic studio lighting.

It does. You have what I would call a directional flood light, too. And you can make any surface emmissive by giving it any other color but black.

There are some really cool starter vids by Rauco on Youtube, also on each type of (included) lighting, and he is quite good at explaining even for not native speakers. https://www.youtube.com/@RaukoDaz3D

Thank you again! It sounds like I have a great, great deal to learn. I think I will have to find time to watch the intro video.