@BB - thanks for taking the time to provide your latest comments; much appreciated.

Quote - If you switch the dome off for being a light emitter, and instead, you use an IBL for your light emitter (diffuse - for IDL we're always talking about diffuse) then you'll get rid of the blue diffuse tint for everything - figure, clothes, and water. You can't have it both ways. Either you have lots of blue environmental diffuse light or you don't.

Indeed, as I've found out....

Quote - You can always dial in more blue diffuse on the water itself, if you want it to be diffusely blue even with a white diffuse light source (IBL). As I showed in my picture, if your diffuse light source (IBL) is white, the reflections of the sky will still be blue. Diffuse reflections and specular reflections are combined on all materials independently.

The general blue tint that you want to get rid of will be gone if your IBL is white and your dome is not set up as a light emitter. It will still glow (be self lit and unresponsive to other sources of light as well as the lack thereof), and still supply the same amount of reflection brightness, regardless of whether or not you have it as a light emitter.

scratches head it's a white IBL at 100% intensity.  But I am following.  

Quote - Entire scene going dim is simply because whatever you're using instead of the dome to supply the general lighting (IBL?) is dim. Make it not dim.

Ah, OK.  Noted.  Shall try that.

Quote - If you set the diffuse color of the water to dark blue and you have a dim diffuse light source, it will be dimmer than dark blue in the diffuse component, i.e. nearly or actually black, while still having the strong reflections of the sky dome.

I think that's part of my problem.  I'll have to go fix that.

Quote - Overall, it sounds very much that you don't have a handle on the overall light levels, and you're simultaneously guessing at how the water should be set. This is exactly the case where you should be using: 1) My light meter to tell you, objectively, how much diffuse light is offered to your props and figures

I've read about that item, but never actually got round to applying it.  Right then.  Cannot escape the inevitable here. Have to haul the light meter out for this scene.  

Quote - 2) Any one of the numerous water materials for lake/ocean that I've posted in various threads.[/unquote] With due respect, I am getting strange tiling effects after rendering the water.  I can't locate discussion regarding a fix, except folk writing about a mesh UV adjustment for large planes.

Quote - Once you have the overall light level set, and the color is confirmed to be neutral by a test prop set to simply Diffuse_Color=white, Diffuse_Value = 1, and it looks white and bright, then you can stop adjusting the lights at all, and move on to the shaders. Trying to guess how to set the lights and the shaders at the same time is exactly why you're frustrated. Get to an objective and neutral color for your diffuse light and then stop adjusting that and tweak the other aspects.

If your dome is turned invisible and you have the IBL set right, you should still clearly see your figure and the general low-level blue of the water (diffuse blue or green or brown water as you see fit, but not reflection blue). After the basic diffuse levels are set, turn the dome back on, and the water should be right.

Don't guess about the water. If you have recent Poser, use Fresnel_Blend with IOR 1.33. If you don't have that node, then use one of the water shaders I've posted.

OK.  I follow that too. Hummmm. Need to muster some energy as we approach mid-week, and fire up Poser.  More later.

Eternal Hobbyist