I need some advice on this image, I want to fix it up and make it better. Any advice will help! Thank You. Johannah

well, the atmosphere is very nice, for me you can fix the too big dimension of dolphins, first dolphin and second are identical change one, also the textures of dolphine may be improved... good work... :)

Some ideas. For me it is not absolutly clear what you want to show here. Dolfins doing some nice tricks or a person watching some dofins doing strange things. Everything is too equal i think. The light is coming from the back of the image making the sky optically more important than the rest. Maybe you support the major theme of the image with a little more (directed) light and perhaps with a pov that puts the major thing into the center and sends the rest to the background. Only my 2 cents, Walther

Some details would help. There is no motor, so some oars on the boat (though they could be stowed). The turbulance of the water needs to be greater, especially for the one that has landed. And even though he's not airborne there sould be some disturbance from the third one. And the third one does need to be a bit smaller. Nice scene overall. I like the colors of the sky and their reflection in the water. jon

The image (atmosphere) looks too washed out. Dolfins have shining skin and a lighter color. Logically the water would be in a movement, so that the man cannot stand relaxed in his boat; they are not in a dolfin show but far in the sea. The water drops would spring much highter.

Do some real water splashes (big ones). I have a tutorial for it, see link at bottom.
Give more highlight to the dolfins and change the black Poser highlight to white. Give some reflection. Use terrains (dunes) for the water. Equilibrate the light in creating some shadowless square spots coming from the opposite side to the sun. Make the light in the atmosphere editor a bit darker.

I can send you the above scene (without the dolfin, of course, but with the spot)if you like to study it.

Guitta

tutorials for beginners

I think you need more detail on the dolphins since they are the main subject matter and closest to the camera and less on the man. As it stands now I see more detail on the man's image when he is a modifier to the subject and farther away from the camera. Dolphins are also very smoothly contured. The most common on the East coast are bottlenose dolphins which are a medium gray on the top, giving way to a lighter shade of gray on the flanks and a white underbelly. West coast animals I believe are darker; almost a blue black or gray black color.The water is fine as is. Just because the impression is an offshore one does not mean that the sea is automatically rough; it can be as smooth as glass miles offshore. The boat looks like a primitive craft; not a modern vessel. Mivan

The above image is a quicky (5 minutes). Maybe the dolfin is too light, but I made it very fast to show you a sample. :-)Guitta

Thank You for all your suggestions!!!! If there is anything else you want to add, please feel free! I will work on the dolfins...and the splash. How did you get the dolfin so shinny and stuff?

Square spotlight, YES!!, but shadowless!!!

Wow, neat! I will have to work on this.