Hello! I’m new to the forum but I’d love some feedback on my render here. I’ve been working with Blender for less than a year and I’m looking to improve my technique through constructive criticism. Let me know what you think! 
I’m going for realism here - I included a slight amount of DoF defocus, and used BI engine and compositing for the coffee steam.
Hi! I want to point out that I have only just converted to Blender, but I believe I have a couple of points for improvement of this piece nonetheless 
In Andrew Price’s introduction to cycles on blenderguru(.com), he made the donut icing using fluid simulation which really added realism. For some reason the diffuse glow on the plate looks a bit odd - though the material for the mug is better (despite the fact that they could be the same materials??) in which case something is up with the lighting! The wood texture is nice, and the bump is just right? I hope thats some help! 
@razfoil
Thanks for the feedback! I actually based this partially off Andrew Price’s “Intro to Cycles” tutorial. The icing IS fluid, but maybe I need to double-check my settings? Anyway, the lighting may seem a little weird because I’m using a ‘mirror ball’-style environment image that I obtained for free. I’m actually about to start creating my own light-probes based on my actual house, so the quality of my renders should improve from that. Anyway, I somehow posted an old version of that render, so maybe you’d like to see the current version? Here:
