Thanks for the great comments, Rob. Trust me, your commentaries will never ever get boring to me! :) Indeed, they are very helpful.

I'm definitely a noob when it comes to lighting, so try to bear with me. I saw some videos on lighting at Youtube and tried to set up the "Three way" lighting arrangement (key light, fill light, back light). This amounts to 500 watt halogen lamps from Home Depot and one 250 watt. However, I was having a problem with shadows and over brightness. It seems very hard to get the lights in such a way where you get lots of light and accents where you want, without glare or harshness. I'm sure this would be easier with a pro light setup with dimmer knobs, but can't afford that ($1,500!). I'll have to keep experimenting until I find that "sweet spot" for all the lights that really works.