Experimenting with Lights

I've been having some problem with Lighting in 3d Studio Max.
In the 30 sec trailer, the lightings in most of the scenes were too bright.
So today I've decided to look at and experiment on different lightings in the animation seminar.

First of all, try to avoid using 'skylight' as it takes ages to render!
The effect of using skylight is very good, but it will be better to create the same effect using other kinds of lights in a short time.

I've experimented on how to create a natural light outside in a field.
Here is the outcome using Skylight:



And here is a Target Directional light: I've used couple of them with casting shadow;



Although using Skylight is much easier use, the rendering time for the Target Directional is much much faster! By practicing and experimenting using such lights (the ones that doesn't take so much time in rendering) will also make me think and learn about the lighting, in terms of the position and how the lighting work.