Under the diffuse shading options there is an option called fresnel, and the default option is rather bright, what kind of materials is it usually used for imitating?
From http://www.blender.org/development/release-logs/blender-242/material-features/ :
The Fresnel Diffuse shader uses the same fresnel formula as in use for transparency or mirroring.
Since it hilights edges (away from lamp), it’s useful to fill darker parts with.
I don’t think there are “real” materials using it, apart from transparent/reflective materials that make use of the Fresnel effect
Find a long hallway with glass doors at the end. Go there at midday, when the light outside is relatively brighter than the light inside. Stand on the opposite end of the hall from the light, and close to the wall. Take a look at the wall at the far end of the hallway – it reflects a lot of light! Even walls that are rough plaster, wood or painted matte. That’s the fresnel effect, and it’s a property of low angles of reflection.
Or look at a car’s windows as seen from outside, standing in front of the car. At the correct angle you can see the surroundings reflected in the side windows while you can see through the windshield into the interior, even though the glass is all the same material. The same principle applies for something like a round glass vase; if you look through the middle it’s transparent, but at the edges the glass seems opaque.
In fact you are both describing the Fresnel phenomenon, and your examples are already covered by the Fresnel parameters in the RayTrans and RayTransp… The question was: as a shader, for which material the Fresnel Shader is suitable? and this is where I can’t find examples… what material reflects light like the Fresnel Shader does without being transparent/reflective/glossy?
It’s not that useful really - it was originally added as a potential way to do fake skin shading/sss by illuminating the dark areas facing away from light sources, but it didn’t turn out to be that useful after all, especially now that we have SSS. It’s fresnel in the sense that it uses the fresnel formula, but doesn’t have much to do with the normal uses of fresnel in reflection etc. It may be interesting for some crazy effects, but i wouldn’t worry too much about it 