All very useful information. I’m actually fairly close, considering I’m shooting with the 42 MP Sony A7Rii/21 mm Zeiss/ at about 1-2 meters at most. That said, at 100% I can see if I moved closer there’s yet way more detail to record in the grain, which then will allow me to also back away from ISO 800 and the accompanying grain. I’m cross polarizing, seeing minimal specular reflections, the 4+ stop light loss being why I’m having to push ISO so high, that plus stopping down to f8 and f11 when getting in close not to invite soft pixels on converged planes. I’ll try all this, add Nik denoising and post results.
I can smooth polys, of course, but the more procedural, the better. How good does the model need to be? This is an experiment to see what’s possible. Will then study the cost factors to know what quality level can be marketed accordingly.