Now, that’s ironic. My first ‘real’ blender job is to make water drops. In blender, the master of refraction 
This is what I got. I appreciate any help on how to make them better.
Thanks
I would say make them a touch darker, and use a star halo effect very subtly on the places where the light is hitting them most directly. Water tends to have a bit of sparkle on it.
Your using Envmaps, no?
If so, create a better environment, this one is too bland.
kudos on the lighting
refrection will be nice don’t ask me how (ask me no qustion and i will tell you no lies), you can try the plug-in though i doubt it will make any diffrence.
It’s hard to judge with the current background. It looks almost like mercury as it is. Would you be able to put it on… a leaf?
Right now it looks more like blobs of latex paint. You need some transparency.
i like it
how did you do it?
two meshes, the second a bit bigger and transparent?
How about a slightly less plain surface? The added contrast might be good, and also the env map might have a nicer effect that way.
Do you need animation, or just stills?
If it’s just stills, depending on the deadline for the job, it could well be worth giving Yafray a go if you haven’t already (especially with HDRI, if you need a still like the one you’ve posted).
I’m trying hard on yafray now, because that’s the only solution. Just making the drops more transparent looks pretty crappy.
Silver_hook, it’s just a flattened metaball system on a plane and an environment map, three spots and apoint light to brighten up th shadows. The rest is just tweaking the material.
Thanks everyone for your comments.
Nico
Yup, go on with Yafray!
Stefano
Extractor is the easiest way to yaf things imo, have you managed to get it running?
The droplets look pretty good. An item I’ve been meaning to
investigate for a long time …
As for ways to improve them, I’ll offer a few (untested) suggestions:
Give them a more natural looking background and let it show thru
a bit more.
Turn off the specularity lighting of all but one or two of the lamps
or reposition them to produce fewer or a more highly focused hilight.
(Selectively turning off the specularity of a lamp is a new feature
in 2.28, in the lower left of the lighting button panel. A great new feature.)
Too many specular points is typical of a studio, but not of the
droplets you see on your car’s fender. Even in a room, the eye
perceives as natural what it expects to see.
Create two transparent droplets, one slightly smaller and inside
of the other.
Then you have an extra layer of refract/flect-ion to play with.
I’ve used this to good effect on glass before,
but I’m not sure what it would do in your model. (this tweak
is best left after youre happy with the overall result, and is
good for selectively colouring the meniscus, or indicating reflection
from an inner surface.)
The suggestion about investigating envmaps is probably the best
place to start. Even if it just means creating a domed room with
a few clouds in it so there will be something to reflect…
As a modeling challenge, water droplets are of particular interest.
(Pun perceived, but not intended)
how do you flatten a metaball?!? …i only know that you can use inverted metaballs 
Like all other meshes, with Constrained Scaling
Stefano
Your problem seemed interesting to me so I took a shot at it myself.
I’m using a fake envmap so I don’t need to add detail to the scene.
The problem I’m having is my meta-balls don’t cast shadow.
I’m using Blender Publisher 2.25, is it because you’re using Yafray to render that you get shadows?
Try setting the metaballls to where you’d like them, and then convert them to a mesh (alt-c).
Oh, yea, of course
…what’s Constrained Scaling and how do i use it? 
hit [S], move your mouse in the direction you want to scale in and press middleMouseButton. That’s constrained scaling.
Nico, love the water drops, now could you put them on a leaf? 
wow! thanks! that was really helpful 
…sorry that i ask such noobie questions