Another nature environment...

First off, I haven’t worked on the background or name very long and definitely am looking for suggestions. Critique away, anything and everything (I am thinking of adding rocks to the foreground, something I am planning out at the moment). All feedback appreciated.
Current:


First:


Hello!

So, it is nice but it does not look artistic.

The main subject seems to be the tree in the middle.
Is not a good idea to put the subject in the center of the picture, only in particular situation (for example: with strong perspective on diagonals).

There is an easy way to do a better view: “The Rule of thirds” (check Wikipedia for some good examples :p).
It is a guideline to help you how place your objects, how place you camera, and give you a better results in general.
It is not pure science, but it help a lot. You even can configure your camera in blender to show this guideline (and other): Camera -> Display -> Composition guides.

Your subject should be “visible”, but on your picture, the top of the tree is completely hide by the others tree around (the top of the image is too dense) and it is in the shadow, it should be in the light.

Otherwise, trees look great, nice textures, light & shadow look good (just need light for this middle tree), grass looks nice.
Hope it will help you!

Took your advice, added details. Didn’t quite hit the rule of thirds, although it may fit some other compositional guidelines. Thanks for the feedback!


Added some rocks and shrubbery, to separate foreground from background. Also, a tree to help compositionally.


Added a background, needs some work but I like how it is looking.


New one essentially just added more detail in the background, also made the trees look worse than they already did…
Never fear, the fix is near (hopefully)!


I feel like my eyes really want to find a place to rest and they want to rest on the water part but then i feel like the water feels flat somehow. So some area of intentional rest and the water. I like that you’ve works on the leaves or something, it looks more alive in the last picture.
Could add some transparency to the leaves too if you don’t have it yet? I love the feeling of there being a slight mist in the scene.

Tree Fixing


In the foreground or background?

Looks very nice, but at first sight it looks like a picture where you used a sharpening filter.
Probably this effect what I see, is caused by the hard shadow (is small but strong light)
So I suppose if you make the sun bigger, there will be softer shadows.
Anyway, can you test a render with softer shadows?

I don’t think it’s hard lighting you’re seeing. The sharpening effect is probably coming from the fact that I render in 2160p then downscale it to 1080p. The scene is lit by an HDR, not a sun lamp. It doesn’t look so sharpened when on a larger display.

With this iteration, I removed the sun beams, as they removed contrast from the foreground. I made a nice misty effect in the background to compensate. Also some more improvements on the trees.


Fixed some trees growing out of rocks in the background, decreased visible repetition.


Here is a version with the mist toned down slightly, thoughts?


Finished Project