There's always something new to learn in Bryce. You can do ANYTHING with it. It just depends on how hard you want to work for it and how long you want to wait for a render and how well you learn to use the deeper features. Macbeth, as far as washed out renders, try turning gamma correction off, I think it's the fourth arrow down just on the left of the render screen. It helps a lot.

Talent is God's gift to you. Using it is your gift to God.