Continuing the theme of a number of recent posts on skin texture, which of these do people think looks the most 'realistic' This first one was my first attempt at a skin shader

This is exactly the same skin shader but with the background changed to black, and the lighting changed slightly

And finally the same lighting as '2' but with the shader specularity decreased and the 'redness' in the sss increased slightly. What is clear is that the shader/lighting combination is far more important than in P5, great in that it gives far greater control of the final appearance in an image, but harder to get consistency between set-ups. Still, the more I play with P6, the more impressed I am, I just have to find some time to have a real go at it, in the hope of being able to start producing some 'art' worth showing :-)

On my opinion the 2nd picture is most reallistic.

I thought the 2nd looks best, too.

2nd one unless you want a pasty UK type person who hasn't been in the sun for 9 months, then I'd go for the first one! Don't take offence, just a bit of fun!

Though if it was a UK type person on holiday, then they would be red and blotchy after having gotten sunburnt. We never seem to learn and on the first day on holiday, stay in the sun and burn to a nice lobster colour :-) Shows how important lighting is, as that is the only difference between 1 & 2 !

Ah! but I meant a UK type person that "hadn't" been on holiday [lol] and yes you're right, good lighting makes all the difference!

First one is a good pale redhead texture

Here is a face shot with the same shader and light settings as '2'. I still have trouble getting around the 'dead eye' look in P6, even though I'm using a specular 'kicker' with the IBL, the eyes still don't sparkle

There is no light in front of the figure so the eyes don`t have the bright highlights.

I like "2" for the skin shading though the face doesn't do much for me ;-). Have you tried adding anisotropic nodes to lacrimals, corneas and eyewhites? That usually works for me - with, as Xantor says - a light slightly to the front of the figure?

A weak light placed near the front of the figure might give you the highlight without messing up the lighting of your picture.