Actually, it's the other way around. The more crisp the image the more problems you'll get with compression, because the artefacts will be more noticable! And sorry to be the bearer of bad news - and much as I love Bryce - you will NEVER get any landscape render that resembles photorealism, no matter how good you are. The problem is not the clarity, but the lighting. Unless you're running a render farm, you won't be able to get the simulated radiosity necessary for photorealism (unless you're working with a VERY simple scene). But if you're determined to try, I would do the following:- 1) Don't use skylab at all 2) Disable the sun 3) Use between 3 and 6 volumetric slabs for your clouds, to give a convincing 3d effect 4) Use a single, bright, distant, soft light for your sun 5) Use between 50 and 500 lights for ambience (depending on how powerful your machine is) in a dome over your scene 6) Use more, ranged lights as required to simulate reflected highlights, e.g. from water, wet foliage, etc. 7) Use a large HDRI dome over your entire scene, textured from a sky photo, for the "background" sky and to enhance the ambient lighting via reflections 8) Render, and wait several days 9) Wait several more days 10) Say "balls to this", go out and take a photo, or at least buy Max5! ;) Good luck, though, I'd like to see what you come up with! :)