How does it work

Starting with Daz Studio. Opening the model scene, dolling the model up by adjusting makeup, tattoos, etc., finding the right clothing, and posing the model. This takes roughly between 10 minutes to 1 hour. In this render, it took me around 35 minutes.

After that, creating the environment. As you can see on the right side of the Daz Studio picture provided, you can see all the props that are being used to make the environment. This can take between 15 minutes to 1 hour of work. In those renders, this took me around 1h and 10 minutes.

After all of that, the lighting. Very important to make the render shine and look great. This work can take between 15 minutes to 1 hour, depending on the scene itself. Portrait requires less lighting work as there is only the face and shoulders to focus on, while a full 3D environment needs proper lighting to make it all work together. In those renders I have made, this took me around 25 minutes.

Then I click the RENDER button and wait between 30 minutes to even 3 hours, depending on how demanding the render is. Rendering time depends on the subdivision used (polygons - the more polygons used, the longer the time), environment quality, and the number of props + reflections (iray) are harder to render as they emit the real-life reflections, model quality itself, and hair (these can eat ram as hell). With those 3 renders I have just made, each render took me around 1 hour.

Once the render is done, I am moving it to Lightroom for color corrections, fixing some minor issues, and enhancing the model + clothes if any. This can take between 30 minutes to 1h and 30 minutes of work. With those renders I have just made, this took me around 40 minutes.

After that, I am exporting the renders to Photoshop for final touches. I use brushes for adding the effects as well as fixing major issues + painting if necessary. Colour correction can also take place if I change my mind on it while I am working on a render. This can take between 20 minutes to even 2 hours of work, all depends on the render idea and the amount of effects it needs. With those 3 renders I have made, it took me around 40 minutes.

I hope this briefly shows you how long making a render takes for me. It is a very long process if I want to create something really good. Without all the post processing, the render to me looks bland, and I absolutely love photo editing. I have attached the raw render that comes out of Daz and the finished render. Please take a look, and you can see the differences :)

Enjoy! Let me know if you want me to show you more of this type of comparison :)