Ok so I spent like $30 on all these sets, and played a bit with that DAZ scene Stripe shared with me. So now you're all getting a free educational lecture. :)
Here's the set as Stripe had it. I just dropped Leah in it and pointed the camera at her, and upped the depth of field to make the stuff in the back blurrier. No other changes. The lights do a fantastic job of lighting the room, but they're not doing our subject any favors:
Note how this looks more like a nice picture of the office that happens to have Leah in it, even with her right in the center. . That dark outfit absolutely does not pop, even her bright red hair is barely standing out, and it's getting more light that the rest of her. Also, the light is mostly coming from above, so eyes are shadowed by the hair, and legs are shadowed by the skirt big time. Quite realistic, but also not optimal for the shot. Those yellow chairs look fantastic, but that's not what should be catching our eye here.
I tried keeping the same lights but added a couple spotlights pointed at Leah (one rear, one front), and then increased the exposure a bit to compensate for all the extra light. I only tried a couple values so this can probably be tuned a bit more, but I think it makes a pretty good difference:
Now it actually looks like Leah's the focus of the picture. Her face is where my eye gets drawn to first, the light playing in her hair looks delightful. The sweater is bluer. And we can see her eyes and legs! (the legs should've gotten a bit more light, but I was afraid to light up that table too much and I got a bit lazy.)
So, yeah, those omni-lights are great, but you still need the spotlights.
