Hard to give advice without sounding like a commercial for the product. I'm a photographer too (product) - started w/Bryce (fun, simple, a little restricting), I'm now on Vue5Inf (love it for simple but good quality results!), I've used 3DS Max6 (friend has it and lets me play - love it, though complicated and $3,400), I bought XSI Foundation ($500, and there's $2k and $7k versions - again, love it but complicated - and some things stripped from the $7k version - YA THINK?), Poser6 (only limited use so far, but I like it a lot), Strata 3D CX (to go with product photography - none of my clients have figured it out yet that some elements are from that and not photographed), and I finally bought Cinema4D (many magazine reviews suggested it was great and didn't have as high a learning curve) and haven't had time to really get into it but I like it so far. Haven't used Lightwave (around $900 now and bundled with Vue5Inf)or Maya (2 versions - $2k, and $7k)- but we've all seen AWESOME results in the right hands - and both have more of a learning curve. As with ANY 3D app, if you don't know it well, it's going to look amatuerish. With just about any of them you can get great results after getting to know them and practice. Hope that helps- -Lew ;-)