look at it from a production standpoint. If your final pic is going to look like the one you've posted, the people in it are tiny as seen from your point of view. You're not going to need a lot of detail on something that small. You can texture Poser items with Bryce textures (used to do that a lot), it's tedious, but possible. You can make slight changes in mat colors, and distribute them.

Think about real life for a sec. If you look at any given crowd, how many different textures do you see? If a crowd of young people, mainly blue-jean textures, or some khakis. If older people, business suits and formal clothes. But how many different colors? Sure, there's going to be some variations, but you're not being asked to reassemble the rainbow..;)

If you look at some of the Bryce pics in here, they look brilliant, sure, but from the angle and forms and colors of the camera. If you pulled back at some of the best pics here, you'd probably laugh..;)

Long story short (as we say around here), you might be heading down the road of over-thinking the pic. Try some groupings of low-poly characters, save the file under different names (to try more than one approach),  and see what works for you.

Just get crackin', and see what works..there's no test at the end of this..;)

I wish I'd said that.. The Staircase Wit

anahl nathrak uth vas betude doth yel dyenvey..;)