If you used light_evironment (dunno if the rest are the same) assuming you are doing an outdoor map. Then click on the entity, hit ALT + ENTER then a box comes up, Go to brightness and the last number (default set to 200) lower that and then there is pitch as well to give you shadows and such. I think -40 gives you pretty good shadows. I am still looking for a really good advanced lighting tutorial, I want to know what I am doing
.
Oh and in the top right corner of that box there is a black circle with a white line, whichever way that white pointer thing is pointing is which way your shadows go. So just rotate it to control the directions of your shadows.
*EDIT* And it
has to be recompiled, try it in a basic map (like 1 block with textures) then play with the lighting, once you find it just right apply it to your map. And if it still comes fullbright it means that your light_environment cannot hit every part of your map, so raise it up. *EDIT*
This is my perception of lighting, if I am wrong, I want to learn too :]