I think there are some things you could be doing to improve your pics in Vue based on what you're posting here. The top one needs a little more shadowless cheat/fill light to the front of the characters. Obviously the sun/main light is behind the characters.

 The bottom one looks perfectly lit but the background looks too blurred relative to the foreground. I'd focus on things like that before jumping rendering engines. Consistency is a big part of building that reality illusion.

It's funny you mention the architectural shots because they usually don't have the human figures in them, which makes getting that real look easier, but they are generally Cornell Box renders, a render inside a 6 sided mesh, which is a lot more challenging for lighting and rendering. I'd suggest you try a few of those as the pics I see in your gallery are exteriors.