Thanks for the advice
I reduced the ambient (I didn't notice it had a value of 0.15) but it's not enough to stop that crazy glow (EDIT: killing the scatter killed the glow as well)... about the look I'm trying to get - there's a pic in the second(Edit: sorry, first) page of this thread.

What's a fill light btw?

Benny

EDIT: one more thing - how can I get the background to be out of focus (blurry)?