I’ve been working on a 3D still life project, and wanted some feedback on how to improve the composition and make it more realistic. Composition, especially of “still life”-type shots is something I’ve always struggled with a bit and it always feels a little nebulous. So any advice there is especially appreciated. I’m also not 100% happy with the textures/materials, especially on the limes, beer pitcher (is it even obviously beer?) and the frosted glasses.
Thanks for any help!
It looks great and you did pretty nice. Lantern looks a bit too clean. Try adding a little dust in crevices might might not be reachable. I see that pesky ring that is mounted on top of the lantern that feels impossible to clean underneath. I can never clean my old lanterns fully. I would recommend looking at Andrew Price’s dust and beer glass tutorials. Ask yourself how long have these objects or materials been under weather and have they been used, cleaned or restored.
The foam in the pitcher looks too solid. I would try some SSS to give it some translucency.
Not sure what you were going for with the tablecloth; the edge looks like it was cut with scissors, and the wrinkles look a bit odd. Honestly, I don’t think it adds much to the image and could probably just be dropped. The table itself provides enough interest that I don’t think it’s necessary.
I think the lantern looks pretty nice. Hard to tell what the surface looks like (see below).
You may want to render with about 4x the samples you used for this one and repost; there is so much noise it’s hard to critique finer details.
Update:
Moar samples, less DoF blur, dirtier lantern, tablecloth removed, added some detail to the table textures, tweaked the lime to look more like a lime, reworked the beer foam (but now it’s too dark and I can’t figure out why). Played around with lighting a bit, tweaked placement and FoV somewhat to compensate for blanket being gone.
Thinking about adding some dust/particles/insects, or something floating in the air around the table.
