Mist River

[Jonathan]

Tried to get the effect of mist on a river in early morning....mist looks a bit uniform, and not sure how to make it more whispy

[dandelO]

The rocks look really good, nice.

[Jonathan]

Thanks DandelO - any ideas to improve it? The rock image (attached) I use quite often....

[dandelO]

To improve it, maybe, I'd limit the fog to the water, or just maybe lower it slightly or, change the Sun's angle. I say that because shadow and/or fog is obscuring what the hints of colour in the very foreground would add to the balance if they were more visible. As it is, there is 1/3 of the image very brightly lit and 2/3 in shadow. Shine some Sun onto the foreground.

I was hoping you'd come back and say the rocks were procedurally shaded but I had the feeling you'd say they were image mapped. Regardless, I think the mapping works quite well in this instance.

[Dune]

It has great potential, this image. The lighting is very dramatic. I partly agree with Martin. If I had this file, I'd get (as you say) a little more wisps in the cloud layer (blending it by small stretched ridges), but not diminish it, raise the POV 20cm or so, so that less of the dark foreground is visible. But I'd keep it quite dark to keep the drama.
The stones may need to be rounder, and you might as well do them procedurally, with some hard billowy fractals for lichens. 

[Jonathan]

Thanks all, I will have a play with teh fog and lighting to give the flowers in the foreground a chance - being a newbie, not sure how to change the mist by using small stretched ridges - do I need to create a new shader within the cloud density shader, and if so, what shader should I use?

[Dune]

Have a look a this file, and play with the settings... just a quick example.

[Jonathan]

Thanks Dune - I will have a look at it and see what I can do

[Jonathan]

So I have taken on-oard everyones great suggestions, and here is the final render! Hope you like it

[Dune]

I do! Very nice.