Having been making lots of stylised and anime-esque characters recently, I thought i'd try my hand at realism for a change.
I was trying for very contrasty, yet warm and sunny lighting. I used Mental ray's Skin shader for the head, and simple transparent polygon hair strips.
The raw render and the Ambient occlusion pass were multiplied together and softned in photoshop, and a small amount of manual touch-up was applied to the hair where there were gaps.
Im quite pleased with the end result, despite not having the time to use more advanced techniques like procedural hair or depth of field properly.
I think ill stick to stylised stuff - realism is boring methinks!
Let me know what you think. Its my first proper attempt at photo-realism...