With post-processing
without post-processing (Click to enlarge)
I think this is my best render yet, but I still see places to improve. What are your thoughts? Do you think it is photo-realistic? Attack it as hard as you can 
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay tooooooooooooooooo daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaark.
Add lights.
What is that above the horizon on the left? Is it sun? If so why is it so dark out there?
Are you sure you need to show it with wide-angle lens? It makes it look very monumental and overwhelming. Is it ment to be?
Looks beautifull 
mountains look a bit blurry
Hi IMI, yes that is the sun, but it’s kind of a sunset scene so I thought it would be slightly dark. Plus the reason it looks dark is probably because of the shadow from the sun. I’m using a HDR lighting with 4 point lighting. IMO it doesn’t look too dark to me…
Are you sure you need to show it with wide-angle lens? It makes it look very monumental and overwhelming. Is it ment to be?
Well I didn’t intend that, but normally what lens do they use for architectural visualization?? I used 18mm because I like to fit a lot in the picture…
@sauraedron I added really small amount of dof hoping to increase some realism. Is that normal? Plus the background itself was kinda low-res…
I like it.
But, i have to agree about lighting. It is still time of a day when light is still a bit stronger. Even if there is a dark, i personally (as an artist / designer), would do little faking by adding more light, and reason is that i wouldn’t allow on viewer to guess.
So i think that shadow on the top floor should be brighter, and material/texture a bit more visible.
What kind of material walls are having? If those are concrete bricks, less reflection could help a bit, i think, to become a little more realistic. They have a little plastic look to me, or am i wrong about material?
In general, looks good!
I dont know if its normal or not im myself begineer.:)(count my number of posts).Yeah the image is low res(jst saw the raw render ). What render engine?
Its so nice… i really wish i could create such render
Okay, this is focus critique, so I’m going to focus on your piece… and then critique it.
First I will start with a compliment: I have tried and tried to do architecture, and this, my friend, looks freaking fantastic and blows anything and everything I’ve ever done out of the water. This looks amazing and has very few errors. I had to go in and really search this thing to find anything wrong. I commend you for your talent, and the tiles are a nice touch. In addition, the composure is great, everything is where it should be, my eye goes where it should, and you’ve got details in the right places. Great job.
Now for the part that you don’t like.
-Many have said it, and I am going to do a bit of circle jerk with them: IT’S JUST WAY TOO DARK. I don’t care if you don’t think it’s not dark, or if you think it makes sense that it’s dark, I can’t see any of the amazing detail I know you put into this magnificent scene. You could even just go into the nodes and make everything brighter, you don’t need to add lights. I just want to see what you’ve created, not the silhouette of what you’ve created.
-The background is pretty low resolution. Fix that man, I’ve seen a lot of people skimping on the background. The beauty of back drop images is that if they are high enough resolution, people don’t think about them, or in many cases assume subconsciously that you created that part too. It is a hassle once you’ve found the right image to find another one at higher resolution, but just do it man, it’ll be in your best interest.
After this point I’m just being nit picky.
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The blinds. Is it just me or do they look a bit odd? I feel like if you made them a bit thicker or something along those lines they would look better. I’m not sure how you created them, it looks like you actually gave some of them cloth physics, regardless, that’s one thing I thought looked off.
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I guess you could add some things in the rooms that are visible. This would just liven up the scene a bit, but you did a good job of that already. #NitPick.
And don’t get me wrong, your scene looks great when it’s small, such as when it’s embedded in this forum post, but when I click on the image and zoom to it’s full resolution I notice certain things like the curtains and background image. Over all you’ve accomplished something amazing, keep up the good work.
Im doing an architectural project right now and I have to say render- wise you u done an excellent job , i agree with it maybe being a bit too dark, with the sun being out, some orange lighting for the sunset would fix that (i think), but also u dont want to take away frome the lights you have on the actually building which i really like. i think you should scrap the mountain bg and go for a nightime scene, but thats just me, i like the architectural design very understated and simple, maybe a render from another angle?
in general i like this image, its quite inspiring as i am working on a similar project
@Homeworkbad WOW thanks for the great critique. Yeah, when I actually rendered a brighter version it did look considerably better (I merged two renders with different exposures to create a hdri - looks better, but not quite up to my standard)
I did this 2nd render before you posted, so I’ll try to do what you’ve just said for the third render - blinds, background, lighting, etc. Thanks a lot 
Oh man, that already looks way better. Good job CG3sK, this brighter version already is a huge improvement. I can’t wait to see the final final.
How’s this?
I’m finishing this and moving on to my next project… so I probably can’t add more in the future sadly.
yh that BG did it looks good