i think ctr S works... havent tried it but it was mentioned in a post somewhere...

exactly. a soft lightsource with low intensity. this is just to reduce the extreme contrast and get more even lighting over the whole subject. naturally, you might want some extreme contrast in some cases, so play around with it.

it all depends on what kind of lighting/effect you want. the difference between studio lighting and 'regular' or location lighting is that in a studio you have total control over the result you get, therefore its good and bad. good cuz you get total control, bad because you get total control: tweaki...

also, make sure the textures are UV mapped and that the corresponding JPGs or image files are in your scene directory (ie. the directory where your .xml file is) if not you can manually set the location by fucking around with the .xml file but its easier if you just copy/move the textures to the dir...

back from being away too long...

would it be possible to put tonemapping in the GUI? its no big deal, but would save some time and XML editing.
if its already somehow implemented, please excuse my ignorance and direct me to the path of righteousness.