I don't think translucency should be higher than 1 (not natural). I usually use around 0.4-0.6, but I may have to revise that strategy. Depends on the species of course, some have thicker blades in nature, letting less light through. It should also carry a texture (leaf nerves and all that), but I never do that, if only because a translucency mask is not quickly derived.
Exp=exposure indeed, and I think the one before last would be the goal, but with higher exposure. Quicker to render too, the latter is just too slow. I never thought it would take more time, I thought it would be a fixed number of light reflections/passes to be computed.
No I didn't change the shadow softness, I usually keep that at default (as it's the natural softness). What I also do occasionally is hovering an invisible (slightly illuminated) plane or dome above some dark area. But it's a cheat too, and takes time, and produces more grain. A little no shadow sun also helps, but then you sometimes get light inside parts you don't want light in (nose holes
).
