Ok, tried some new things.
- Different model asset
- gemstone shader instead of water shader
- different hair
- lighting (will detail at each pic)
As detailed above, standard lighting for the background
As detailed above, standard lighting for the background, with iris's shaded differently
in a dark room with one style of light inside her body
(Ok, I'm going to go ahead and say this is creepy as fuck! I love it!
. I may use it as a lighting effect without showing the model)
Same setup with a spotlight inside her
Same as last but spotlight in front of her
Same room, different type of light source inside her
I can't explain a lot of this and I used to be a photographer. Light and lighting was a big deal to me. The only thing I can think of is Daz doesn't calculate reflection and refraction very well. It will do ray-tracing, but mostly for shadow calculation. In Daz defense, it's not a high end rendering program but a posing program that renders well enough and animates barely enough. It's pretty damn good for a free program.
More experimentation!