Lantern 2

Wow! 5+. At this point I agree the shadows might still be a bit too soft. You might have to consider the relative scaling of the models. I would expect the floor near the base of the lamp to be in shadow. Nice colors, very warm. I might suggest that the flame be made to appear brighter at the base, a little more white and less orange, for I believe the room is orange enough generally, so a white flame will look good. I want to get the feeling of real heat from that flame, that if I touch it I will get burned. Even a tad of blue within the flame might not go amiss if properly placed.

I'm afraid I do not know how to change to portrait format.

It improves from version to version. I think if you don't want to use additional object on the table, the portrait format would be an option.

I'll definitely use your advice in the next render. As for objects around the lamp, I'm still modeling those.

Well done! Nothing to complain about, really. I see the tips worked as expected and I'm glad about it. Photographed in real life, such a lamp will look exactly this way concerning the strenght of the flame's light intensity, color and falloff. The thing that will literally complete this setup of yours is lowering the shadow softness and adding some weak but then again detailed bump to the table, and perhaps some more objects - forks, spoons, ashtrays even, you'll think of something appropriate. To help you see what I mean by less strong soft shadows, I made a quick render with the default gray material on the cube below and the walls. [URL=http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/8004/softshadelamp1.jpg][Click Here][/URL] Though in my case the walls are closer to the lamp, ignore that distance and concentrate over how the shadow pattern looks around the lamp.