So what DO you do?

Working in Photoshop

Photoshop is an image editing software. It allows me to manipulate and enhance 2D images, as well as draw and paint images from scratch using my graphic tablet. Basically, now I can take the final render (or "shot", if you like) and edit it as a 2D image. I can paint on it, I can change colors, I can apply effects and so on. In this particular image, the work was done in 2 levels - one was painting missing details, and one was enhancing and editing the actual image.

I open the final render in Photoshop. The first thing I do is paint in the missing details - in this case, the hair and the grass. This is done in traditional painting techniques - that is, different colors and brush strokes in order to simulate light and shadow and different surfaces.

Next I turn to add contrast. The image is basically finished, but it doesn't have enough contrast, and the colors look too "washed out". So now I need to enhance the colors and the contrast using several techniques (some of them can be seen in my A Bit of Portrait Postwork tutorial).

And now working on the colors. I keep to the original colors; I just "bring them out".

This is it. Now the work on the image is done. I add a frame and my signature, and save the Final Image.

I hope this very general tutorial helped you understand my process of creating an image using all 3 programs. The work changes in each image - in some images I do more work in Poser, others in Vue and in others in Photoshop. The way I see it, it's not about what tool you use, but about using the tools you have in the best way you know how, in order to bring the image you have in your mind to life. :)