Need some suggestions.....

SandySims

First off, let me say it's been awhile since I tried to render anything.  So there is a lot I've forgotten over the years.  So with that in mind, let me explain what I need.  I'm trying to refresh an image that I have up on a download site so that it will get some new attention.  This was the original image:

 

 

The ships are kinda dark so I changed the sky and the sea texture and got this:

 

Then I added a square parallel colored light to kind of reflect on the hulls a little and got this one.

 

Anyother suggestions?  I just want believable, not realism.

 

 

 

 

sriesch

It appears some of your rigging got moved up away from the ships, you probably want to move that back down.

Possibly the hulls would benefit from a slight curve upward at the back end (as they are in shadow you could probably fake it with some primitives that blend into the rest of the hull), and/or a little bit of added detail on the sides, back, and deck? (google image search for "tall ship" for random ideas if desired. figures/cargo/longboats/nautical brica-a-brac, cannon doors/portholes/board material).

what are the rectangular objects at the tip of each center mast (flags?)

great sunset colors & overall scene idea!

Hansmar

I think there are several options. You could use an HDR of the sky as light to get some lights from all around onto the scene. You could also use some light shining onto the ships from the camera side (low intensity, not to spoil the effect). I sometimes use a distant fill light for that purpose. 

But to get a complete set of options, you could go to the forum entry by Rashad on lights. It is here https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/142591/rashad-s-thoughts-on-lighting-in-bryce-7-1-pro-in-2017#latest. At the first page a very long explanation starts on lights and why they can be much better than we usually achieve. But also, there are links to files with complete light rigs that can be tweaked. The general idea is, that there is light coming from all kinds of surfaces (bouncing), e.g. from the sea bouncing up to the ships and from the sky. Therefore, Rashad Carter has made sets with various lights that try to simulate all that. It takes a while (or more) to understand everything in the thread, but just playing with Rashad's sets can give a lot of nice results already.

So, experiment with various additional lights (distant or not, effecting only the ships or not) and certainly have a look at Rashad's suggestions, because he really knows this lights-stuff in Bryce!

Horo

SandySims - This is a nice scene with a great mood. It appears that the hulls of the ships glow, this looks a bit strange. It may be that something happened to the objects as sriesh suspects. A good strategy is usually to go without ambience at all and set sun shadow intensity to 100. This gives completely black shadows that can be brightened by several means as Hansmar mentions. I would suggest to create an HDRI from the sky, it can be small, not using it as backdrop; adjusting the light with HDRI Effect and probably reduce saturation.

SandySims

Horo, The hulls are glowing because I used a set of parallel lights to lighten them up from the total blackness that the original had.  So, it looks like I'm about to start wading into Rashad's post.  He's very good at lighting, I just have to admit that most (not exacly all) of it goes way over my head!  Maybe I could use your Golden HDRI on this.

SandySims

sriesch said:

It appears some of your rigging got moved up away from the ships, you probably want to move that back down.

Possibly the hulls would benefit from a slight curve upward at the back end (as they are in shadow you could probably fake it with some primitives that blend into the rest of the hull), and/or a little bit of added detail on the sides, back, and deck? (google image search for "tall ship" for random ideas if desired. figures/cargo/longboats/nautical brica-a-brac, cannon doors/portholes/board material).

what are the rectangular objects at the tip of each center mast (flags?)

great sunset colors & overall scene idea!

Rats, the rigging is messed up.  In between trying to make sense of what Rashad wrote, I also need to hunt up this model again!