Hiya Quizenite. Well, it would depend hugely on personal preference, really. I mean, like I could say, it needs a nekkid Pamela Anderson in it and then it would be perfect. ;) But seriously, the lighting is good, but maybe a litle bright. I see what appears to be a good amount of motion in the characters on the beach, and one looks hopeful, while the other looks resigned. So if they are stranded, you might have captured that idea well. Maybe just a little vegetation so we know they haven't been starving to death? Not "poor" at all, for a 1st pic. Hey, after all ya gotta do it eventually, right? :)

Rubbish? Not at all. I like the composition and the color scheme. I think you're off to a great start. The only thing I see that's not too good is the rough edges on the render. Make sure you use final mode when rendering the "final" image you're going to post. It will look a lot better. I think the best way for finding out how to improve things is just to keep experimenting and to look at and learn from everything you can here at Renderosity and elsewhere. I'm sure if you post some images of your art as you are working on it in the Vue forum and ask specific questions about details or "how do I do this?" you will get some very good answers. Keep up the good work, looking forward to seeing more from you.

Nice lighting and composition, although I think I'd lose the lens flare. The model to the left seems to be standing on his toes rather than flat on the ground, and the other appears to be almost sliding off the edge of the rock. But perhaps they are both very excited about seeing the ship out there. :)

This reminds me very much for my own first pic I send in renderosity.com :) Hmm, let's see, how bout some anti-aliasing to get away those sharp edges? Anyhow, very nice pic!