Changed "Golden Forest" a little bit. Plants from xFrog DVD.
Added receive shadows from surfaces in the "fog" layer. This also added 10.5 hours of render time.
Not worth it, IMO. I like the first one much better. The sun in the second should not be there, it's just a spot now. Or it should be a large glowing space as in the first.
I agree with dune about the sun in image two. But the rest of the image is very moody and interesting. Both images are very nice and convey two completely different feelings. What are you going to do with them? I think out of context of any larger project it is hard to judge them. They are already good. So what now?
First one feels like a hot and humid place.
The other one feels cold.
10 hours, damn, at least you are patient.
Beautifull render. I prefer the first.