For some reason, I find that renders using water will sometimes have a curiously strong "glow" to them (the water plane, not the render)... Ive checked the shader, adjusting highlights, shininess, reflection, and glow and such, but will still get the glow and cant account for it...

I ususally remove the water, not saving the image, so I dont have (much) to show for example...

On one, I even set the lights to exclude the infinite plane, and STILL the water  "glew" (new word folks :P)

Anyone else get this in their renders?

And another....

and here, where the lights are set not to affect the water...

The glow is an artifact of some shader logic. Color + transparancy + reflection should not be above 100. Kind of. I do not have time to elaborate much right now. Maybe you can search for some stuff like that.

Its actually 1 of the included water presets... I adjust, bringing everything down, so that couldnt be it, but Ill double check, thanks for that info though... Will keep that in mind for sure.

The first image appears to have some pretty overpowering lighting and I don't really see a glow in the 2nd image.  The 3rd one, however, does look like some shader setting is really cranked up. ???

1st image has no lights. Its a simple global illumination render (sky and indirect lighting are checked off and are at 100%) where the atmosphere does all the "work"... And I did check, the shader settings on the 3rd were made even lower after seeing the glow show up from the default settings of the shader.

Actually, in the 1st image, I used the calm water for gi from the presets browser, and the 3rd is a slight variation of it. The 2nd uses turbulant water for gi, no adjustments...

Well...really hard to say w/o looking, but kill your ambient which by default is set for 20%. Also, you don't need indirect light at 100% often not even GI. You look to have way too much light in all of them. If u are using 100% caustics that is really way too much also...it can really go over the top.

It was the caustics... Thanks alot :)

Your welcome...I suspected that. w/ the glowy effect.   Will really add to render time also. An over saturation can also happen from caustics. I highly recommend starting w/o all the bells and whistles. Way too many people start out in Carrara using all the bells and can't figure out what's happening w/ lighting etc. Getting a mastery of what does what will really keep u from pullin your hair out.

There are so many options and possible combinations of settings w/i Carrara to use that it really can be overwhelming for newcomers. Admittedly, the transition from Bryce to Carrara is seriously tough (at least for me it is)... While I have an understanding of 3d in general, getting used to how things operate w/i Carrara is, as in any program, a long and daunting process of trial and error.

Good that places like this exist, the "manual" that came w/ the -download- isnt much help w/ the intricacies of Carrara...

Thanks again :)

Yeah the good news is that Carrara principles will apply better to other program's also. The bigger 3d programs, that is. The manual is helpful, but certainly can leave out stuff. Many people don't read the manual tho. I do recommend a scroll thru or reference to certain features because it usually will explain the concept behind the feature. This may not solve a specific problem, but will let you understand what is going on much better.