I am trying to light this scene, and I do not want this reflection of light on the object. The material itself looks too glossy. I want something softer, like how skin reacts to light. Any suggestions?
In the materials buttons section, on the shaders panels, the second section controls the specular reflection setting. Default setting is Cook Torr (specular calculation model), Spec = 0.50 (intensity of specular reflection) and Hard = 50(hard/soft edge of the specualr highlight.)
Try a setting with Spec = .1 and Hard = .6. That will give you a wider specular reflection with less overall intensity. Adjusting these two values further wil give you a lot of different options.
You can also select different calculation methods for the specular. The wiki manual gives you some good images to help you get a feel for the differences. Here’s a good place to start: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Manual/Specular_Shaders and the diffuse section should also be of interest and helpful: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Manual/Diffuse_Shaders
Lynda