My First Render, Feedback appreciated.

[ADAM]

Yeah its an artistic choice thats just a personal hangup from me. Im glad you are seeking criticism,advice and opinions of others. It takes more character to accepts what people think is wrong that it does to accept what people pat you on the back for.

If youre running a denoiser that might be why your skin is losing detail

[Spats]

@selfieh

While the lower lighting helps, it's not a complete improvement because the subject is unlit as well. Check lighting tutorials and look into the various real-world kinds of lights and their purposes and effects. Side lighting, rim lighting, spots, ghosts, etc.
[EDIT:] And how they apply to DS. (The great and ubiquitous DC Portrait Lighting Guide graphic is a great place to start with practice setups. Usable beyond just portraits as well, altering light distance and intensity.)

The surfaces of everything matter at least as much as lighting. Starting with a great (not good) skin MAT is paramount for characters, for example, as others here have suggested. I won't go into favorites because tastes vary. But there are some pretty incredible places to begin out there with some research. Note, however, that even the best skin MATs can suffer under certain lighting scenarios, or look completely different than promos or professional renders if surface settings are off. This is where the "art" of the art comes in, and will require patience and learning via repetition.

Barring these two things (your subject and its lighting), the rest of your surfaces need depth. Anything that's supposed to be wood needs relief (bump or normal maps) and subsequently shadows. Anything that's clean can be helped to be blemished, irregular, or non-uniform. Do a search here (on the blog and in the forums) for "Kindred Arts" ("KA" - creator of things like Brickworx, Glassworx, Iray Clothworx, WoodWorx). The SurfaceWorx asset is great. It takes time and there is a learning curve, but eventually once comfortable with tweaking settings in the surfaces tab things do start to happen. Added to surfaces like walls and tables the realism begins to show.
[EDIT:] However (and again), if working with a lacking or un-detailed surface or scene to start with, it's going to be difficult at best to make it into something it can never be. Much like looking for great character MATs, seek out great scenes to put them in, on, or around. Try Roguey's European Style Apartment as a potential replacement for your scene, for example, and practice with that. It comes with great (not good) textures with high attention to detail, and also comes with some pretty great lighting and camera presets. See where it takes you.

The devil is in the details. (And with DAZ you'll spend a lot of time with the devil. Have fun with that.)

[Author]

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