How do I get ENB to look less like Candy Land and more darker/grittier?

[ReMeDy]

I used to have the very first version of ENB Skyrim installed. I loved it, but obviously an upgrade was needed when there's been over dozens of updates since. Well, I updated using Jasmin v8_7 RLO, and I hate it. It looks like Candy Land, and all the ENB's I see look just like it:

 

 

 

 

I want it to look closer to my original ENB, which looked like:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Any ideas what in-game options I can tweak? I know pressing shift+enter brings up the ENB menu. What should I be looking to edit to fix this, or should I just go with a different ENB? There are so many ENB options, it's insane. I already disabled bloom and reduced brightness, but I still think it needs more work.

[dork42]

Creating your own preset would be optimal, but would take a bit of learning and tweaking quite a bit so yeah just find a new ENB for the latest binaries.

 

There are some handy comparison files of many of the ENB (usually a bunch of jpegs of a few scenes with each of the ENBs loaded) that might help your search as it can feel daunting as it does seem like a quite a lot of ENB presets have been uploaded..

 

There's a Serenity Enhanced that I use and like quite a bit (I am also not a fan of Candyland) or Straylight. I used Seasons of Skyrimd HDR for quite a while though it can lean towards C-Land though not as bad as your first pic.

 

Saturation is the key component to turn down so everything isn't popping out eyesore I believe

 

Also make sure the ENB and any lighting overhaul play nice together. Many times only part of the overhaul is to be used with a particular ENB. Or require brightness to be set to zero.

[crudo]

I've only recently been using ENB's and have been very happy with Seasons of Skyrim.  Not sure I would call it gritty but it certainly isn't "candyland".  There is another that caught my eye, Grim and Somber, maybe more to what you are looking for.

[Mud]

I don't really know what else your game looked like, but I'll say Seasons of Skyrim seems really close to what you want. The Real HDR version is a bit more washed out and the HD6 Tribute is a bit more vibrant, but both feature pretty good balances.

 

However, it kinda just looks like your new ENB doesn't have any depth of field or distant fog features and that's why it looks so jarring.

[Sailing Rebel]

Jasmin appears to be intentionally saturated. I think what may be missing from your screen shots is some weather effects and perhaps a water mod. It also looks like the ambient light is turned way up. Could just be that location/angle/time-of-day though.

 

You might want to take a look at RealVision as an alternative I think its default is more like your preferred appearance.

 

Be careful when switching out ENBs, always use the uninstaller provided or follow the uninstall instructions - files left behind can cause problems with future installs.