Lighting up the camp

I don't consider myself very knowledgable about lighting yet, so i found my self a bit lost in Maya. I started with an Area light for the campsite. I'm still not sure what that one does. Or why it was so dark?

Then i moved on to an ambient light, as it sounded like it covered a wide area with light. I changed it a bit yellow, as sunlight is usually shown as this.

I chose the Ambient light, as it lit up the sceen well, and created lovely contuours in the sand dunes.