Rendering standards for mechanical objects

I am very new to rendering. Below is a trial render with default settings of a plug cock. I know I will need to change a few settings but I was wondering whether there is a "standard" for the lighting of mechanical objects. What I mean is should mechanical objects be lit from above or below, distant light or point light, shadows on or off, background present or not etc. Or is it the case that ther is no genrally agrred standard and the object is displayed in the best possible light! (so to speak)

I don't think there's a standard way of lighting up your mechanical models, you just have to experiment with different types of lights, at different locations, different intensity, you name it.

The main thing is to make sure you get nice even lighting so you can see all the detail of the part. Your render is way too dark and it's very difficult to see a lot of the detail. For these types of renders, I would recommend a standard 3 point studio lighting setup.

Google 3 point lighting

Google 3D 3 point light setup