So. Properly modded, Skyrim is a visual masterpiece (ROFL IMAGE WARNING) [View all]

The HD Flora mod greatly sharpens the quality of the foliage, making it possible to see individual veins in the leaves of plants and seed pods on grass stems, as well as pine needles that actually look realistic. Realistic Lighting - Full alters the way the game itself is lit; overbright areas are darker and places that should have a long, black space (such as a long tunnel with a torch at either end) are actually black and thus more difficult to navigate. The Skyrim Immersion Mod removes the HUD and other screen elements (yes, it can be configured to bring it back) so that all you see on the screen is the game world itself. Without quest markers or a compass to rely on, nor yet any health bars for you or whomever you may encounter, Skyrim becomes a much more dangerous and mysterious place. I also have installed a mod that easily alters the timescale of the game; I have mine set as close as possible to real time (default I think is 20x faster), and have set the .ini files up such that shadows, both inside and outside, and much sharper than they are as shipped. Finally, I've added in a mod that makes blood splatters much more realistic-looking on surfaces in general.

ALL of these mods and many, many more can be found on Skyrim Nexus.