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Description
I wanted to see how realistic I could get one of my renders to look. My main inspiration was this amazing digital painting "portrait" by Elena Sai and the amazing Daz portrait renders by kooki99fr ("Lydia Closeup" is my favorite ).

I definitely haven't mastered the art of realistic Daz renders, but I do think I learned a lot. From this experience, I think that when it comes to Daz realism, 50% of the result comes from using a good model. If you're using a Genesis 8/8.1 character, HD details are a must, as is good skin (I adjusted the skin using my favorite Proper Subsurface Scatter Shading For Human Skin tutorial by Dfggcxbbb. I don't have any Genesis 9 characters, so I don't know how well they render out of the box.

After that, I'd say another 30% of the realism comes from good camera set up (depth of field, appropriate focal length) and good lighting that is complimentary to the environment. If you're using an HDRI for lighting and a backdrop, it still doesn't hurt to add a spotlight or two to push the lighting. In this case, I used an HDRI for the lighting but not the background, I added a spotlight to push the lighting, and I used this backdrop image plane process from Landon-Stuyvesant to add this photo by Wolfgang Hasselmann on Unsplash as a background (though you can barely tell, as I made it really big and pushed it to the back to blur it with the camera's DOF).

The last 20% of Daz realism (and perhaps the most important part) comes from postwork. I really think this is a critical part that I know I have been underestimating. But at this point I'm certain that a render straight out of Daz is never going to look like the gorgeous images that make up the Popular section in Daz's Community Gallery, nor will it look like the promo images in the Daz Shop. And I'm talking about detailed postwork, not just adjusting the contrast and calling it a day. For example, look at the eyes in my favorite "Lydia Closeup" render from kooki99fr. No Daz eyes render out like that. The sclera is so white, the iris is so vibrant, the amount of eye veins is so perfect. Along with being a great render artist, Kooki99fr is also a great Daz PA that sells characters in the store, and I have two of their characters. They're very well done characters, but the eyes don't render out like that, and the highly acclaimed Natural Eyes for Genesis 8 doesn't make them look like this either. I followed a couple of the wonderful Photshop postwork tutorials by PiXimperfect on YouTube , treating my render like a photograph, and only then did I start to think I was getting closer to the gorgeous eyes seen in kooki99fr's renders. I also ran Topaz Studio 2's pastel filter (and left it at just 30% opacity) at the start of my postwork, and I think that also helped a lot. Something about Daz renders tends to be too unnaturally crisp around the edges, and the pastel filter helped to bring everything down to reality just a bit.

But anyway, all of that aside, I had a lot of fun making this render and doing all the postwork. I still have a lot to learn, but I think this is my most realistic render so far!

Rendered in Daz Studio, postwork in Photoshop + Topaz Studio 2

Description
I wanted to see how realistic I could get one of my renders to look. My main inspiration was this amazing digital painting "portrait" by Elena Sai and the amazing Daz portrait renders by kooki99fr ("Lydia Closeup" is my favorite ).

I definitely haven't mastered the art of realistic Daz renders, but I do think I learned a lot. From this experience, I think that when it comes to Daz realism, 50% of the result comes from using a good model. If you're using a Genesis 8/8.1 character, HD details are a must, as is good skin (I adjusted the skin using my favorite Proper Subsurface Scatter Shading For Human Skin tutorial by Dfggcxbbb. I don't have any Genesis 9 characters, so I don't know how well they render out of the box.

After that, I'd say another 30% of the realism comes from good camera set up (depth of field, appropriate focal length) and good lighting that is complimentary to the environment. If you're using an HDRI for lighting and a backdrop, it still doesn't hurt to add a spotlight or two to push the lighting. In this case, I used an HDRI for the lighting but not the background, I added a spotlight to push the lighting, and I used this backdrop image plane process from Landon-Stuyvesant to add this photo by Wolfgang Hasselmann on Unsplash as a background (though you can barely tell, as I made it really big and pushed it to the back to blur it with the camera's DOF).

The last 20% of Daz realism (and perhaps the most important part) comes from postwork. I really think this is a critical part that I know I have been underestimating. But at this point I'm certain that a render straight out of Daz is never going to look like the gorgeous images that make up the Popular section in Daz's Community Gallery, nor will it look like the promo images in the Daz Shop. And I'm talking about detailed postwork, not just adjusting the contrast and calling it a day. For example, look at the eyes in my favorite "Lydia Closeup" render from kooki99fr. No Daz eyes render out like that. The sclera is so white, the iris is so vibrant, the amount of eye veins is so perfect. Along with being a great render artist, Kooki99fr is also a great Daz PA that sells characters in the store, and I have two of their characters. They're very well done characters, but the eyes don't render out like that, and the highly acclaimed Natural Eyes for Genesis 8 doesn't make them look like this either. I followed a couple of the wonderful Photshop postwork tutorials by PiXimperfect on YouTube , treating my render like a photograph, and only then did I start to think I was getting closer to the gorgeous eyes seen in kooki99fr's renders. I also ran Topaz Studio 2's pastel filter (and left it at just 30% opacity) at the start of my postwork, and I think that also helped a lot. Something about Daz renders tends to be too unnaturally crisp around the edges, and the pastel filter helped to bring everything down to reality just a bit.

But anyway, all of that aside, I had a lot of fun making this render and doing all the postwork. I still have a lot to learn, but I think this is my most realistic render so far!

Rendered in Daz Studio, postwork in Photoshop + Topaz Studio 2